European lawmakers have approved sweeping new regulations to curb smoking, including limits on electronic cigarettes, bigger warnings on cigarette packs and a ban on menthol.

The European Parliament vote in Strasbourg on Tuesday came after months of bitter debate.

The parliament voted to impose warning labels covering 65 percent of cigarette packs, rejecting a measure for blank packaging instead. Legislators also put new limits on advertising for electronic cigarettes, but stopped short of restricting them to therapeutic use voted to ban menthol as of 2022, among other flavorings.

Tobacco lobbyists decry the regulation as disproportionate and limiting consumer freedom. European officials advocate the benefits to public health, saying smoking related diseases cost about 25 billion euros ($34 billion) a year and around 700,000 lives across the 28 nation bloc.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

European lawmakers on Tuesday were set to tighten rules governing the multibillion dollar tobacco market by imposing bigger and bolder warnings on cigarette packs, banning most flavorings like menthol and strengthening regulation of electronic cigarettes.

The European Parliament vote in Strasbourg comes after months of bitter debate. Tobacco lobbyists decry the regulation as disproportionate and limiting consumer freedom, while European officials advocate the benefits to public health.

Under the proposed law, mandatory warnings would take up to 75 percent of tobacco packaging and be more prominent, with the inclusion of gruesome pictorials some for example showing cancer infested lungs to discourage potential customers. It also aims to stop youngsters being swayed into smoking by new, fancy packaging, e cigarettes or cigarettes featuring flavors such as menthol or fruit aromas.

Smoking bans in public, limits on tobacco firms’ advertising and other measures over the past decade have seen the number of smokers fall from an estimated 40 percent of the EU’s 500 million citizens to 28 percent now. Still, treatment of smoke related diseases costs about 25 billion euros ($34 billion) a year, and the EU estimates there are around 700,000 smoking related deaths across the 28 nation bloc.

The issue proved highly divisive in Parliament, and last minute amendments sought to water down the legislation, for instance seeking smaller mandatory warning on cigarette packages.

Ireland’s Prime Minister Enda Kenny on Monday wrote a fervent appeal to lawmakers, urging them to stick to the bigger warning labels since “they are more effective at highlighting the dangers of smoking.”

“Every year, more Europeans die from smoking than from the combined total of car accidents, fires, heroin, cocaine, murder and suicide,” he said.

If a majority of lawmakers backs the legislation, Parliament must still reach a compromise with the EU governments on certain points before the rules can enter into force. Diplomats say a deal could be struck by the end of the year.

However, if lawmakers decide they want more time to evaluate the measures, adoption of new rules would run into procedural hurdles and collide with elections for a new European Parliament in May, likely delaying the legislation until early 2015.

The draft law would also limit the booming sector of e cigarettes by demanding they be sold as therapeutic devices to help smokers kick the habit, rather than as a casual alternative to tobacco. The battery operated products look like real cigarettes and turn nicotine into a vapor inhaled by the user. They are often marketed as a less harmful alternative to tobacco.

The tobacco industry has fiercely lobbied against the new rules, in an effort that officials and diplomats described as an unprecedented campaign to intimidate lawmakers and soften or frustrate the legislation.

The head of the World Health Organization, Margaret Chan, on Monday urged Parliament “to remain steadfast in the midst of these pressures” and to stick to the proposals “to abate the entirely avoidable deaths and diseases brought on by tobacco use.”

“The tobacco industry is, once again, using an arsenal of economic arguments, precisely because such arguments are so effective in shifting the emphasis away from health, especially in times of financial austerity,” she said.

The lobbying was led by Philip Morris International Inc., which owns several brands like Marlboro and called the new legislation “deeply flawed.” The company maintains that, among other things, banning menthol, slim cigarettes or small packages would violate EU rules.

Philip Morris, with $8.5 billion of sales and 12,500 employees in Europe, also claimed the regulation could result in up to 175,000 job losses and lost tax revenues of 5 billion euros per year.

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By Ann Cahill
European Correspondent Countries including Ireland staged a major pushback against the tobacco industry, which had won over many in the European Parliament to weaken new rules on smoking.

There was a danger that the first attempt to regulate the booming e cigarette industry, currently worth an estimated 2bn per annum, could fail as MEPs pushed for them to be freely available and contain much greater concentrations of nicotine than in single cigarettes.

But tough negotiations between the council, representing the member states, and the European Parliament overnight came up with a fresh set of compromises that would allow the EU to ban refillable cartridges if three states requested it.

Health Minister James Reilly is an ardent anti smoking campaigner and is leading the way in the EU by being the first country to produce legislation on plain packaging of cigarettes which would not contain the name of the brand.

He has been firmly against e cigarettes being sold across counters also, saying they were a gateway to smoking as they were targeting young people, rather than as a means to wean people off smoking.

The proposal now on the table in relation to the amount of liquid nicotine allowed in an e cigarette should be limited to 20mg/ml, similar to the dose of nicotine from a standard cigarette.

They must be sold in childproof containers with health warnings.

Maximum amounts of liquid nicotine for refillable containers are to be agreed. However, on the understanding that a given electronic cigarette or refill container that could pose an unforeseen risk to health, the European Commission would have the power to ban them if three EU states have already prohibited them.

The original proposal to consider e cigarettes as a medical device, like nicotine patches, and make them subject to rules for medicines and restrict their sale to pharmacies has been changed.

They will now be considered as a consumer item and may be sold over the counter in usual outlets, but some MEPs believe that in fact the outcome is unclear since they can be banned EU wide if three countries produce sufficient justification to ban them nationally.

The lead negotiator for the liberal ALDE group, Fr d rique Ries, said, Council and Commission were obsessed by the toxic and addictive qualities of nicotine, which remain in e cigs, and ignored their value in avoiding cancer, heart disease and respiratory problems connected with traditional cigarettes.

The provisions unfortunately now favour small dose and single use cartridges over refillable containers though the latter have been widely taken up by vapers .

Reaction varied from the European Parliament with British Tories saying it would take the majority of e cigarettes off the market and would restrict all but the weakest nicotine devices.

Member states representatives meet today to see if they all agree on the final draft with the e cigarette provisions remaining the main issue of contention.

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