431 meetings with tobacco lobby: about four times the previous term
According to Smoke Free Partnership, 193 members of the European Parliament have met industry representatives since July 2024. The EU is preparing to revise its tobacco rules.
Symbolic image · Photo: Profpcde / Wikimedia Commons, CC0 (cropped and resized)
Members of the European Parliament held 431 meetings with tobacco industry representatives between July 2024 and September 2026, according to an analysis of publicly declared meetings by the public health group Smoke Free Partnership. The entire previous term saw just over 100 such meetings. Of the Parliament’s 720 lawmakers, 193 met industry representatives.
A Politico review cited by Tobacco Reporter found that about three-quarters of the meetings involved lawmakers from three right-leaning political groups. Philip Morris International had at least 178 meetings and British American Tobacco 60. Topics included planned revisions of EU rules on tobacco products and advertising, minimum taxes on tobacco and nicotine, and public health initiatives.
The group raised concerns about industry access ahead of the forthcoming revision of EU tobacco legislation but acknowledged that meetings alone do not establish direct influence on legislative decisions. Industry representatives defended the meetings as legitimate participation in the legislative process.