Philip Morris is pressuring von der Leyen to join the European debate on competitiveness

Philip Morris International (PMI) addressed in March 2026[1] A letter to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, demanding a voice in the debates on the revision of tobacco legislation in the name of industrial competitiveness. The tobacco giant deploys an arsenal of arguments—threatened jobs, expanding illicit trade, the transition to a cigarette-free world—which public health organizations and available independent data refute point by point. This episode illustrates once again the lobbying pressure that tobacco companies exert on European institutions at the very moment when Brussels is preparing to revise two major directives governing tobacco and nicotine products.

A letter addressed to the highest European authorities

The letter, sent on March 12 by PMI to Ursula von der Leyen, was also addressed to the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, the President of the European Council, António Costa, and the President of Cyprus, Nikos Christodoulides, who holds the rotating presidency of the Council for the first half of 2026. It was made public this week by Massimo Andolina, PMI's President for Europe, accompanied by a statement asserting that the tobacco industry is «"Deeply rooted in Europe, a legal industry undergoing profound transformation.".

PMI is asking the Commission to engage in a dialogue which it describes as «"fair, transparent and based on science"» in the context of the ongoing revisions to the Tobacco Tax Directive (TTD) and the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD). The tobacco company argues that its sector supports more than 2.1 million jobs in the EU, involves more than 45,000 SMEs, hundreds of thousands of agricultural workers and retailers, and has production facilities spread across several Member States. It also calls for the future legislation to clearly distinguish between traditional cigarettes and so-called "products". "smoke-free" (heated tobacco, electronic cigarettes and nicotine pouches), relying in particular on the 2021 BECA report of the European Parliament, which called for a continuous scientific assessment of the risks associated with new nicotine products.

This action is part of a long-documented influence strategy. Article 5.3 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, ratified by all EU member states, explicitly recognizes a fundamental conflict between the tobacco industry's commercial interests and public health policy, and recommends that interactions between policymakers and tobacco companies be strictly regulated and fully transparent. The European Commission has not yet publicly responded to PMI's request for a meeting.

The argument of illicit trade supported by a disputed report

PMI states in its letter that over 52 billion illicit cigarettes were consumed in Europe in 2024, resulting in some €19.4 billion in lost tax revenue for governments. The tobacco company concludes that overly restrictive taxation or regulations risk driving consumers towards illegal markets, benefiting criminal organizations and harming public revenue.

These figures are taken from the annual report that PMI has commissioned from KPMG for nearly twenty years. However, this study, financed and conducted in collaboration with the world's leading tobacco company, relies on a methodology regularly challenged in the scientific literature and by several public institutions. It conflates, under the label of «"parallel market"» Categories of very different natures (legal cross-border purchases, duty-free, smuggling, and counterfeiting) produce spectacular figures that do not reflect the reality of illicit trade in the strict sense. French authorities, for their part, estimate the parallel market's share to be between 11% and 20% of national consumption, a considerable discrepancy with the projections of the study commissioned by PMI.

An industry that claims to be transforming, but continues to produce cigarettes

PMI places at the heart of its letter the assertion that the company «"is leading the transformation of the sector towards replacing cigarettes with smoke-free products,", emphasizing that the latter are «"Addictive and not without risks, but they constitute a better alternative to smoking.". The company is therefore requesting that European regulations not «"discriminates, does not silence or marginalize" »"a legal industry and its employees.".

Public health organizations dispute this narrative of rupture. According to a recent analysis by OxySuisse[2], PMI launched over 450 new types of cigarettes between 2016 and 2020, and its financial communications continue to present the combustible cigarette market as a driver of economic growth, even warning of the risk of "cannibalization" of this market by smokeless products. JTI, another industry giant, also announced in March 2026 the construction of a new €300 million cigarette production plant in Romania.

In response to these arguments, the Smokefree Partnership (SFP), a coalition of public health organizations, is calling for a strengthened tobacco products directive, aligned with the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and the European goal of a tobacco-free generation by 2040. The organization describes the current revision as "A unique opportunity for European governments to put citizens' health before the profits of the tobacco industry"', The European Cancer Organisation, for its part, emphasizes that tobacco-related diseases cause more than 700,000 deaths annually in Europe. It also points out that tobacco remains the leading preventable cause of cancer in the EU, accounting for approximately 27% of all cases, and warns against the increasing use of new nicotine products among young people.

The revisions to the TTD and TPD are shaping up to be one of the most closely watched public policy debates in Brussels in the coming months, with major implications for taxation, innovation, industrial investment and regulation across the European Union.

©Generation Without Tobacco

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[1] Colin Stevens, Philip Morris urges von der Leyen to include tobacco sector in EU competitiveness debate, Euroreporter, published on June 24, 2026, accessed the same day

[2] Molineaux H, Canevascini M, Diethelm P, Lonchampt S, Solleder M, Risk reduction in the service of increased profits. Analysis of the tobacco industry's deceptive narrative. OxySuisse; 2026, Available at: transparencyandtruth.ch/ressource/reduction-des-risqueset-nouveaux-produits-du-tabac-le-double-jeu-de-lindustrie/.