A series of burglaries in Brussels has set "alarm bells ringing," a senior anti-smoking campaigner says today.
A report in The Lancet raises concerns about the fate of proposals for Europe-wide restrictions on tobacco.
The EU’s health commissioner has been sacked and shortly afterwards offices of anti-tobacco campaigners in Brussels were burgled. Laptops and documents were stolen – but nothing else. The affected organisations included the European Public Health Alliance.
The EU is proposing to order that tobacco products are sold in plain olive green packages.
Professor Martin McKee, professor of European Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, says the events "set alarm bells ringing."
He said: "While the truth about these events will emerge eventually, it may be too late for the revised Tobacco Products Directive. Yet there is no reason why this should be so.
"The only beneficiaries of delay are the tobacco companies."
Paul Belcher, an adviser of EU affairs at the Royal College of Physicians, said today: "The current situation is undermining both citizens’ confidence in EU decision making as well as public health efforts to combat the scourge of tobacco."
Commissioner Dalli says he was forced to resign because of allegations which he denies. He says he was given 30 minutes to agree.
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