eCigarettes: Balanced regulation

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The European Union needs to promote and actively protect innovation, research and development.

This will not only send the appropriate positive signals to investors and provide our business community with a dependable space to develop successfully, it will also have a positive impact on high quality employment creation and on consumers’ satisfaction.

Vaping products embed significant research and development. These are highly innovative products and represent a potentially safer category for consumer use.

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Relying on the voice of science, regulators should adapt to new developments, respect scientific advice and regulate such innovative products in an appropriate way.

Provided with relevant scientific evidence, regulators need to recognise the potential that such products have for reducing, apparently to a significant extent, the risks associated with the consumption of traditional tobacco products.

I am strongly in favour of holding a parliamentary debate on how to best regulate these products in the European Union and on how to ensure that appropriate EU standards are in place and at work in this sector.

The Illicit trade of such products should be appropriately addressed at EU and national level.

Such a debate should allow all those involved to express informed views and help achieve balanced and better regulation.