European Tobacco Control Scale 2025: significant regulatory disparities but progress possible

The new Tobacco Control Scale 2025 paints a contrasting picture of tobacco control in Europe[1]. The report covers 37 countries and assesses their policies on a 100-point scale across eight areas, including pricing (taxes), smoke-free spaces, bans on all advertising, health warnings, smoking cessation support, age limits, large-scale media campaigns, combating illicit trade, and protection against tobacco industry interference in public policy. This edition introduces two new features: a specific score for age limits and a new method for evaluating media campaigns.

The central finding is worrying: for the first time, more countries saw their scores decline in 2025 than increase. The report attributes this decline to two main factors: insufficient regulation of heated tobacco products, which are often treated differently from cigarettes, and the lack of adequate adjustment of taxes to inflation. The authors describe this as a clear sign of stagnation, or even regression, in several European countries.

France is among the top-ranked countries, but Ireland remains the example to follow.

Ireland leads the way with 80 out of 100 points, ahead of the United Kingdom (78), the Netherlands (76), France (73), then Norway (66) and Finland (65). Belgium and Slovenia join the group of top-scoring countries this year, with 64 and 62 points respectively. In total, nine countries scored at least 60 points, placing them in the leading group.

The report highlights that these countries share more consistent policies on pricing, advertising, and smoke-free spaces. It also emphasizes the existence of plain packaging, very strict restrictions on advertising and promotion, and improved smoking cessation support in several of them. France, for example, remains well-ranked despite a still high prevalence. The report points out, however, that the recent decline in daily smoking from 25 % in 2021 to 18 % in 2024 is attributable to the range of measures adopted. Nevertheless, Ireland remains the model to strive for: ranked first, it was notably the first country in the world to ban smoking in bars and restaurants, has the highest price level among EU countries, and regulates heated tobacco products in the same way as cigarettes, thus hindering the development of these new products on the market. The country is also committed to better control of supply and retail distribution. Since February 2026, retailers wishing to sell tobacco products must pay an annual fee of €1,000 to obtain such a license and €800 to sell inhalable substances containing nicotine.

This edition of the report, which has been regularly published since 2005, also incorporates new provisions. For the first time, the focus is placed on the age of access to tobacco products, which has become a key and mobilizing measure for a country's planned phase-out of tobacco. Latvia has thus become the first European country to raise the legal age at which tobacco can be sold to 20 by 2025, and more recently, the United Kingdom, with the adoption of a generational ban on sales, sets a benchmark: the The Tobacco and Vapes Bill does indeed plan to prohibit sales to people born on or after January 1st.^er January 2009. According to the authors, these measures illustrate the direction that European policy could take if it truly wants to prevent a new generation of addicted consumers.

Structural weaknesses in many European countries

At the other end of the ranking, 19 out of 37 countries do not reach 50 points, the threshold the report considers the minimum level for an effective policy. The lowest scores are recorded in Bosnia and Herzegovina (20 points) and Switzerland (33 points). Eight countries even score less than 45 points., compared to only five in the previous 2021 edition.

The report places particular emphasis on the importance of tax policies and highlights their shortcomings in the context of high inflation between 2020 and 2024. Only 4 out of 37 countries improved their score in this area: the Netherlands, Belgium, Slovenia, and Slovakia. The United Kingdom and Ireland remain the countries with the most prohibitive tobacco prices, while Turkey and the Russian Federation are among the lowest-ranked.

The problem of heated tobacco: a regulatory loophole in the fight against tobacco

The report also highlights a recurring problem: in several countries, heated tobacco products are not regulated like cigarettes, even though they are tobacco products and should be regulated similarly. This is one of the main reasons for the score declines observed in Romania, Italy, and the Czech Republic.

In this context, Italy is particularly criticized for allowing the development of extensive advertising for heated tobacco products, including in the print media. The Czech Republic and Romania are also lagging behind in terms of smoking bans and the regulation of new products. The report considers these exemptions as "loopholes" that undermine the progress made on combustible tobacco.

The report's recommendations are inspired by good practices and linked to the WHO treaty.

Thus, the Tobacco Control Scale formulates a series of recommendations based on the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), ratified by all the countries studied for this ranking with the exception of Switzerland.

The authors of the report call on all countries, where they have not already done so, to set a target for "exiting tobacco" ("endgame") by a deadline and to strengthen global tobacco control policies.

They reiterate that heated tobacco products must be regulated like traditional cigarettes (with similar rules regarding taxation, advertising bans, flavorings, consumption in public places and for collective use, etc.). The adoption of plain packaging for all tobacco products is a fundamental measure, as is the regulation of nicotine products, including the removal of filters for tobacco products.

Furthermore, these authors urge the authorities to adopt a new European tax text that would increase minimum levies and reduce disparities between products. They advocate for the expansion of smoke- and aerosol-free zones, and the prohibition of advertising and product displays at points of sale.

Furthermore, they encourage the development of smoking cessation support and the regular conduct of public information campaigns.

Finally, they advocate strengthening the fight against illicit trade by ratifying the FCTC Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products, which provides for a monitoring and traceability system strictly independent of the tobacco industry, and the possibility of limiting market supplies in relation to their smoking prevalence.

To achieve the adoption and implementation of this arsenal of mutually reinforcing measures, it is essential that the provisions protecting public policies from tobacco industry interference be fully applied in accordance with Article 5.3 of the FCTC. The report highlights that countries that have performed less well like Cyprus, which currently holds the European presidency, These are largely the same people currently obstructing strong measures in the review process of the tobacco taxation directive. Erin Roman, director of the European anti-tobacco coalition Smoke Free Partnership, calls for resisting the tobacco lobby and aiming for the most ambitious public health policy possible.[2].

©Generation Without Tobacco

AD

[1]Joossens L., Abbink H., Roman E., The Tobacco Control Scale 2025 in Europe, Brussels: Smoke Free Partnership, published on May 20, 2026, accessed on May 21, 2026

[2]Dalers op Tobacco Control Scale frustreren EU-beleid, TabakNee, published on May 21, 2026, accessed the same day

National Committee Against Smoking |