Eight EU Capitals Propose Ban on Non-Existent Nicotine Products

We Are Innovation, a network advocating for progress through innovation, is urging the European Commission to reject a proposal from eight EU member states seeking to impose a market freeze on new nicotine products. The group argues that such a measure, aimed at barring any novel nicotine-containing products from the EU market, contradicts the bloc's stated agenda for enhancing competitiveness.

The proposal, submitted by the health ministers of the Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, France, Hungary, Latvia, Slovenia, and Spain, also includes calls for flavor bans and standardized designs. We Are Innovation contends that freezing the market for products that do not yet exist goes against lessons learned from the Mario Draghi report on European competitiveness, which identified overregulation as a hindrance to research and innovation.

The organization emphasizes that traditional precautionary measures assess existing products, whereas a market freeze would ban innovations based solely on their novelty, without any evidence or risk assessment. This, they argue, would prevent smokers from switching to potentially less harmful alternatives, hindering public health goals.

We Are Innovation points to Sweden's approach as a successful model, where regulation, rather than prohibition, of alternatives like nicotine pouches has led to a significant decline in smoking rates, making Sweden effectively smoke-free. The network warns that such a broad ban on future products could deter investment in other innovative sectors, including biotechnology and artificial intelligence, sending a negative signal about Europe's innovation climate.

The group calls for the Commission to adhere to its Better Regulation toolbox, advocating for regulations based on the relative risk of products and proper assessment of costs and benefits, rather than preemptively banning uninvented items.