Chapter eleven
russels is the front line for the tobacco lobby in the European
Union. It is here that the principles of future global legislation
are decided, despite the decline of the west European markets.
EU legislation creates an important example for the Europe's large new cigarette markets in the central and eastern parts of the continent. Philip Morris has invested US$500 million in the Czech Republic alone in recent years.
These countries are the future members of the EU, and the tobacco lobby aims to avoid a domino effect where restrictive EU laws have repercussions on the US and new markets.
But although EU legislation is tough, there are areas where it is impossible for the Commission to act. This is because health questions are dealt with at the national level within the Union.
The Commission's only rights of intervention are in the coordinating of national policies within health areas in order to make them more effective at the Community level. The Commission cannot make suggestions for specific measures or actions. And the tobacco lobby's main goal is of coarse to keep the Commission«s power restricted in this area.
The other pressure groups are CECCM, which organises the European tobacco producers, the tobacco traders' organisation CEDT, the producers representing the south GITES, the foodstuff workers unions ECF-IUF, and Smokepeace Europe, which fights for smokers' rights in Europe. In addition, there is the Paris-based agricultural organisation UNITAB.
Philip Morris is represented in Brussels in part by an active pressure group, that employs 14 people, and partly by a think-thank that arranges conferences on a range of EU issues, including tobacco and foodstuffs. This is intended to lend the research institution an official independent status that distinguishes it from the parent company.
The lobbying group Philip Morris Corporate Affairs Division Europe employs several former journalists. The chief or the PR department is Denise Claveloux, a former Brussels correspondent for, among others, the British tabloid the Daily Mail. She complains that Philip Morris has difficulties in getting access to the Commission and EU parliament.
Claveloux presents Philip Morris as a representative for an important industry that deals with a total of 1,5 million EU-jobs and which is denied access to the EU's corridors of power, unlike the perfectly presentable cancer lobby.
"They had a couple of lobbyists for each Commissioner--there is a total of 20 of them--before the important tobacco decision that was due to happen 18 December last year. Forty lawyers were called in just for lobbying," says Sibylle Fleitmann, who heads the international coordination of the European Cancer League (ECL) in Brussels. She compares the battle to that of David and Goliath.
In a skilfully formulated report, which was published about a month before the Commission's decision, Denise Claveloux complains, how disappointed she is in the Commission's reticence over dialogue with the industry.
"Flynn has such firm opinions. He has made the fight against tobacco his personal crusade," complains Claveloux.
Even though Philip Morris moans about its feeble links with EU institutions, the company has succeeded in placing its trust in two former agricultural commissioners as consultants--Ray Macsharry, from Ireland, and Rene Steichen, from Luxembourg--who take up tobacco and, of course, other agricultural questions.
The tobacco lobby scored an important victory in December 1996 concerning the subsidies to tobacco growers, mainly in Greece, Italy and France. Flynn had wanted to end the subsidies.
Before the decision thousands of tobacco growers invaded the streets of Brussels waving masses of tobacco leaves, that were then burnt outside the EU Commission, leaving a strong aroma that pervaded the building for several days.
Despite the victory over tobacco subsidies, the tobacco lobby faces a series of future obstacles.
There is a threat that tobacco advertising will be banned throughout the Community. For several years a ban has been blocked by a minority of countries in the Council of Ministers--Germany, Holland, Greece, Denmark and Great Britain.
"When Philip Morris talks about advertising representing freedom of choice for individuals, it means that the tobacco industry has to recruit 1,500 young smokers daily within the European Union, because 1 500 smokers die each day," explains Andrew Hayes, an anti-tobacco lobbyist who works for ECL.
The cancer lobby rejects such a ruling on the grounds that it would be partly ineffective--young people can get a hold on cigarettes anyway--and would be a clean victory for the tobacco lobby.
A firm backlash against the tobacco industry came when people in Belgium--a nation of tobacco enthusiasts--voted for a total ban on tobacco advertising. The next day Le Soir announced with funereal headlines that the Formula-1 race held annually in Francorchamps, in south Belgium, is under threat, as it is mainly financed by big cigarettes brands.
The Belgian publicist association, exactly like they do internationally in these questions, about the huge gap in advertising revenues which the decision brings with it. This in turn threatens the freedom of expression.
The Belgians went even further and warned that the decision made by parliament and which comes into force 1 January 1999, paves the way for new advertising bans against pollution-producing cars, and perhaps later against cholesterol-rich dairy products.
The other part of the campaign ridiculed the dangers of passive smoking. Philip Morris stressed that it had not intended to show that passive smoking is no more dangerous than eating biscuits, drinking too much water and eating salty food, but its campaign had set public opinion against it.
Claveloux defends the campaign vigorously and chuckles at claims that mothers who smoke deliver under-sized babies.
"How can it be proven that a baby would have grown more if the mother hadn't smoked," she laughs, saying that she is not familiar with the statistics that show that smoking during pregnancy leads to smaller infants.
Does this mean that Philip Morris recommends that pregnant mothers should smoke?
"We will not recommend smoking for anyone. People have a free choice. This is what the campaign is about."
Tobacco lobbying activities, however, now focus on the versatility and breadth of industry: all people from farmers to tobacco retailers, restaurant owners to advertising people are dependent on cigarette sales. n