Pricing Policies and Control of Tobacco in Europe

Price is the single most important intervention in tobacco control (TC). To protect the health of its citizens the EU now has a major role in regulating tobacco fiscal policy (FP) through a number of EU directives. The aims of these directives initially were to ensure the proper functioning of the internal market. The directives aided harmonization in EU Member States (MS) but now with EU enlargement price differentials have increased problems for the market and health protection.