MEPs plan tobacco subsidies as Brussels fights smoking

Tobacco growers could begin receiving extra cash as soon as next year after MEPs voted to amend changes in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

The vote, which needs further ratification, allows member states to decide which crops receive European Union farming subsidies. That could see countries such as Bulgaria, Poland and Greece giving huge sums to their tobacco growers.

Critics have already argued that the proposed changes to the subsidy system will herald a return to the notorious “butter mountains” and “wine lakes”. Now they may see a return to the subsidising of the multi-billion-pound cigarette industry as well.

Owen Paterson, the Environment Secretary, told The Sunday Telegraph: “Subsidising Greek and Bulgarian tobacco growers is clearly wrong. Not only would it take us back to the dark days of skewing the basic laws of supply and demand, it would also spend British taxpayers’ money on a product that is of absolutely no benefit to our society. I’m fighting hard to stop subsidies being linked to production like this again.”

When the old system was finally phased out in 2010, tobacco farmers in 12 EU countries including Bulgaria, Greece, Romania and Italy were typically receiving £260million in subsidies. The scrapping of the subsidy prompted a decline in tobacco farming across the EU, which producers will now hope to reverse.

Tobacco growers have looked for ways to diversify and find uses — other than the manufacture of cigarettes — for the crop. Bulgaria’s Tobacco and Tobacco Products Institute has even manufactured a new perfume called Tobacco and Roses, which it hopes will be a big success.

The “eau de parfum” comes in a box bearing a photograph of three cigars intertwined with roses. The reality, however, is tobacco as a fragrance is unlikely to supersede cigarettes as the main use of the crop.

The move by MEPs on the European Parliament agriculture committee that would reintroduce the tobacco subsidy comes despite a £27million campaign being run by the European Commission to encourage smokers to give up cigarettes. Officials say that the initiative, entitled

“Ex-smokers are unstoppable”, is helping hundreds of thousands of people to give up the habit.

Critics said that the plans to bring backsubsidies for tobacco were “wasteful” and “bizarre”.

The decision was described as “staggering” by anti-smoking campaigners.

The disclosure comes ahead of a summit this week at which the Prime Minister will attempt to negotiate a freeze or cut in spending from Brussels.

Deborah Arnott, chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health, said: “This is an outrageous and retrograde step. Tobacco is responsible for more than 650,000 deaths in the EU every year, which is why subsidies were removed for tobacco.

“It makes no sense at all to revert back to subsidising the growth of such a deadly crop and it’s staggering that the agriculture committee thinks otherwise. We urge MEPs and the Commission to reject the committee’s proposal outright.”

Pawel Swidlicki, research analyst at the Open Europe think tank, said: “Given how much the EU and member states invest in anti-smoking campaigns, reinstating direct production support for tobacco would be both financially wasteful and counterproductive, so it is bizarre that some MEPs are pushing for this.

“The CAP as a whole is simply not fit for purpose and its outdated protectionist tendencies damage Europe’s global competitiveness. Fundamental reform consisting of slimming down and refocusing funding could deliver much better value for taxpayers and the environment.”

The European Commission had proposed changes to CAP legislation to allow for “coupled” support, or so-called “double payments”, meaning that farmers will again receive subsidies linked to production. The Commission had published a list of approved products for the new subsidy including fruit, vegetables, meat and milk but excluding tobacco.

But MEPs on the European Parliament’s agriculture committee agreed last month to an amendment which extended the scheme to cover all the products covered by the CAP — including tobacco.

The amendment followed lobbying by tobacco growers in countries such as Bulgaria and Italy, among the largest tobacco producers in the EU.

Herbert Dorfmann, the Italian MEP who put down the amendment, said countries should have the greatest possible choice over how they spend the funds.

Mr Dorfmann said: “There should be an allowance for member states to choose assistance where they really need it. I come from a mountainous region and we need to provide support for milk production. My proposal was not to say, 'Let’s have coupled support for tobacco’ — that was not the idea. I never thought about tobacco.”

A spokesman for the European Commission insisted the committee’s proposal — allowing the subsidy for tobacco — was unlikely to happen. The spokesman said the amendment would need the approval of “an overwhelming number of member states” to become law.

“EU law is decided jointly by elected MEPs and elected ministers,” said the spokesman, adding: “The agriculture committee in the European Parliament cannot amend commission proposals. Only a vote in the European Parliament plenary can do that.

“In this case there has been no such vote. So no EU institution has proposed raising tobacco payments.”

Prof Hristo Bozukov, head of Bulgaria’s Tobacco and Tobacco Products Institute, said subsidies were necessary to protect the country’s 30,000 registered tobacco growers. “There is not enough tobacco on the world market,” he said. “The European Union needs tobacco and we have the conditions to produce it.”