Notes from the European Parliament
Here I am in one of the many meeting rooms at the European Parliament building in Brussels.
The picture was taken yesterday following a meeting convened and chaired by Linda McAvan, Labour MEP for Yorkshire and The Humber, who works on the The Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI).
It was described as a "meeting with representatives of stakeholders in the tobacco products supply chain" and we were there to discuss the Tobacco Products Directive.
I was representing Forest which represents the consumer. Other stakeholders included tobacco companies, tobacco farmers, packaging and flavouring companies, wholesalers, cigar manufacturers and the smokeless tobacco industry.
The agenda was set by McAvan who split the meeting into four sections: ingredients, labelling and packaging, oral tobacco, and any other issues.
Very few MEPs took the trouble to come and hear our concerns. I counted seven in addition to McAvan, although several more sent their researchers. (You can't tell from the picture above but the room was pretty full during the meeting.)
There were several tell-tale moments. At the very beginning McAvan – who was chairing the meeting, remember – declared her support for TPD2. I respect her honesty but you can see why we were concerned we might not get a fair hearing.
Sinn Fein MEP Martina Anderson later observed that we should "remember the 80 people who have died [from smoking] while we've been in this room and all the people who will die today".
Another MEP said she was "fighting for health". The European Parliament, we were told, speaks for the 700,000 people who die each year from smoking-related diseases in the EU.
To be fair, McEvan was very competent and professional. She had clearly read the TPD proposal, unlike one or two of her colleagues.
The problem was that although every stakeholder had a chance to speak, we were each restricted to three or four minutes to comment on a 70-page proposal.
To the best of my knowledge there will be no further meetings that will allow any of us to question or challenge some of the more prohibitive measures.
Sadly, that's how the European Parliament works.
Later in the day representatives of the electronic cigarette industry had their own meeting with Linda McAvan.
Aside from our own concerns, it will be interesting to see how the European Parliament handles that particular potato.
Watch this space.
To download the report click here. Guido Fawkes had the story yesterday: Policy wonk burns misleading plain packaging consultation.