The "Swedish model": behind the argument, a lobbying network close to the tobacco industry

At the end of July 2026, the conservative media outlet The European Conservative published an opinion piece[1] This article presents Sweden as proof that liberalizing nicotine products, rather than regulating them, would reduce both smoking and the illicit market. It reiterates arguments already used on several occasions and was produced as part of an editorial placement program run by Young Voices, an organization whose governance is documented as being linked to the Consumer Choice Center, itself directly funded by the four largest transnational tobacco companies. With the revision of the Tobacco Tax Directive (TED) and the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD3) approaching, the proliferation of this type of content in the European press calls for vigilance.

On July 30, 2026, The European Conservative published an opinion piece entitled "EU Celebrates Sweden's Tobacco Success While Undermining It." The text begins with a factual observation—Sweden has become the first country in the European Union to fall below the threshold of 5,130 daily smokers—and draws a biased conclusion: that this result is due to Swedish tolerance of snus and nicotine pouches, rather than public policy. The opinion piece then relies on data from the KPMG 2025 report on illicit cigarette consumption in Europe.[2] to assert that European restrictions would fuel the black market, and calls on Brussels to abandon the tax harmonization of nicotine sachets as well as to relax the revision of the TPD.

What the Swedish figures actually say

The decline in smoking in Sweden is real, but it relates almost exclusively to combustible cigarettes, not to nicotine consumption as a whole. According to data from the Swedish Council for Alcohol and Other Drugs Information (CAN)[3], The proportion of daily smokers in Sweden fell from 16 per 100,000 in 2003 to 4.8 per 100,000 in 2025, while snus use among women jumped from 4 per 100,000 in 2007 to 14 per 100,000 in 2025. Over the same period, sales of vaping liquids increased by 640 per 100,000 between 2021 and 2024, and sales of "white snus" (nicotine pouches) by 180 per 100,000. By 2025, 24 per 100,000 Swedes were consuming nicotine daily, across all products. Sweden has therefore not eliminated nicotine consumption: it has simply replaced one addiction with another, with a new generation exposed to products whose long-term effects remain poorly documented.

This reality also contradicts the idea that the decline in Swedish smoking is solely due to the availability of smoke-free products. On the contrary, the data shows that the decline observed over the past two decades is primarily the result of consistently implemented public policies: advertising bans, deterrent taxation, limiting product visibility at points of sale, protection of minors, and the development of smoke-free areas. Neighboring countries Norway and Finland, which have chosen to go further by aiming for a complete phase-out of tobacco and nicotine rather than just substitution, rank 5th and 6th respectively on the European Tobacco Control Scale 2025, compared to 24th place for Sweden.[4].

Several Swedish researchers themselves warn against an overly favorable interpretation of this narrative. Pharmacologist Louise Adermark, from the University of Gothenburg, believes that Swedish policy has been too heavily influenced by industrial interests, while cardiologist Magnus Lundback, from the Karolinska Institute, points out that prolonged snus use can have detrimental effects on the cardiovascular system and rejects the widely held notion that this product is "good for your health."«[5]. Sweden was also recently recognized by the World Vapers' Alliance, an industry-backed organization, for its "remarkable performance" in reducing smoking, an acknowledgment that illustrates how this narrative is being used for export to other European markets.[6].

A mode of editorial production rather than an isolated stance

The European Conservative's op-ed is not an isolated case: it is part of the regular output of Young Voices Europe, an offshoot of the American Young Voices network. This organization defines itself as a non-profit "talent agency" that trains young writers to produce opinion pieces and place them in the mainstream press.[7]. This editorial placement model deserves to be put into context: it is not a public health research center, but a communication structure whose mission is to multiply, via individual writers, talking points favorable to a given economic and regulatory line.

Young Voices does not disclose its funders. The only available data, from US tax returns, shows that it has received contributions from the Charles Koch Foundation and the Charles Koch Institute.[8], and that it belongs to the international Atlas Network[9]. This funding network has a long-standing relationship with the tobacco industry. A study published in the journal Tobacco Control, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), established that between 1991 and 2002, Philip Morris and other tobacco companies paid at least $5.3 million to Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE), an organization co-founded in 1984 by David Koch to lobby against tobacco taxation and regulation; CSE later gave rise to Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks, two central structures of the Koch network.[10]. It is this same funding ecosystem, now structured around the Atlas Network, of which Young Voices is a part, that subsequently extended its activities to the promotion of new nicotine products. Several other opinion pieces signed under the banner "Young Voices Europe," written by different authors, reiterate the same opposition to the increases in tobacco and nicotine taxes in the European Union, suggesting a coordinated editorial line rather than a collection of individual stances.

The documented link between Young Voices and tobacco industry funding

It is on this point that academic research sheds more concrete light. The Tobacco Control Research Group at the University of Bath, which has been documenting the tobacco industry's influence strategies for over a decade through its Tobacco Tactics observatory, establishes a structural link between Young Voices and the Consumer Choice Center (CCC), a Washington-based lobbying organization: Young Voices' board of directors reportedly includes representatives from the CCC, and several opinion pieces published under the Young Voices Europe banner opposing tobacco taxation in the EU are said to have originated from authors who are also employed by or affiliated with the CCC or the World Vapers' Alliance[11].

However, the Consumer Choice Center is not an ambiguous case from a funding perspective. The same observatory documents that this organization has received funds from Japan Tobacco International, Philip Morris International, and British American Tobacco, as well as annual donations from Altria since 2018.[12]. The CCC has also created several structures presented as independent consumer collectives, including the World Vapers' Alliance mentioned above, which has been revealed by several journalistic investigations to be in reality financed and run by British American Tobacco.[13]-[14].

This architecture corresponds to a well-documented technique in the literature on tobacco industry influence strategies: the use of third-party spokespeople, trained and disseminated by communication structures that present themselves as independent, to bring pro-industry messages into the public debate without the funding link being immediately apparent to the reader.[15]. The fact that an individual opinion piece does not mention, in a personal capacity, any link with the tobacco industry does not therefore preclude it from being part of a distribution circuit structurally connected to its financing.

As the revision of European directives approaches, vigilance is necessary.

This type of opinion piece is part of a specific context: the European Union is currently revising the Tobacco Tax Directive, the Tobacco Advertising Directive, and the Tobacco Products Directive—three texts that will notably determine the tax regime applicable to new tobacco and nicotine products, the rules for permitted advertising, and restrictions on nicotine content and flavorings. This type of article is just one aspect of the industry's mobilization around these revisions. Philip Morris International has been identified as being behind a large proportion of the responses received during the European public consultation on these directives. These responses were obtained through a tool that automatically generated pre-filled contributions, which were then disseminated via posters and QR codes in stores, as well as through emails sent directly to its customers, without the company's connection always being explicitly stated. As these deadlines approach, the proliferation of opinion pieces echoing the Swedish narrative, relying on partial data or reports commissioned by the industry itself, such as that of KPMG, and the orchestration of campaigns responding to the public consultation should raise awareness of the need to systematically verify the origin of the arguments put forward in the public debate.

©Generation Without Tobacco

AE

[1] Cláudia Nunes, EU Celebrates Sweden's Tobacco Success While Undermining It, European Conservative, published on July 30, 2026, accessed on August 3, 2026

[2] KPMG, Illicit Cigarette Consumption in the EU, UK and Norway – 2025 Results, Report commissioned by Philip Morris International, 2025

[3] Swedish Alcohol and Other Drugs Information Council (CAN), High consumption of snus and nicotine is preventing Sweden from achieving a "tobacco-free generation".«, Published on May 29, 2026

[4] Tobacco-free generation, European Tobacco Control Scale 2025: significant regulatory disparities but progress possible, Published on May 24, 2026

[5] Sandhya Raman, Sweden's push for smokeless products leads some to wonder about risks, Roll Call, published on August 6, 2025

[6] Tobacco-free generation, Smoking reduction: The industry-backed World Vapers' Alliance highlights certain member states, Published on July 11, 2025

[7] Young Voices, About, Accessed August 3, 2026

[8] InfluenceWatch, Young Voices, Accessed August 3, 2026 (funded by the Charles Koch Foundation/Institute)

[9] Atlas Network, Empowering the Next Generation of Champions, Accessed August 3, 2026 (Young Voices as an Atlas Network partner)

[10] A study published in Tobacco Control (2013) on the funding of Citizens for a Sound Economy by Philip Morris, summarized in DeSmog, Study Confirms Tea Party Was Created by Big Tobacco and Billionaires, https://www.desmog.com/2013/02/11/study-confirms-tea-party-was-created-big-tobacco-and-billionaires/, Published on February 11, 2013

[11] Tobacco Control Research Group, University of Bath, Consumer Choice Centre, https://www.tobaccotactics.org/article/consumer-choice-center/, Tobacco Tactics, updated March 6, 2026, accessed August 3, 2026

[12] Ibid

[13] B. Kenber, Revealed: how tobacco giants are bankrolling secret pro-vaping campaign, The Times, https://www.thetimes.com/uk/healthcare/article/tobacco-industry-pro-vaping-campaign-investigation-m82dtl93s, Published on December 14, 2023

[14] R. Sollenberger, W. Bredderman, Guess Who's Secretly Backing This 'Anti-Smoking' Vape Group, Daily Beast, https://www.thedailybeast.com/world-vapers-alliance-slams-cigarettes-big-british-american-tobacco-is-secretly-behind-it, Published on January 9, 2022

[15] S. Horel, Vaping: The real millions of fake consumer organizations, Le Monde, https://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2021/11/03/vaping-the-real-dollars-behind-fake-consumer-organisations_6100848_3224.html, Published on November 3, 2021