Across Europe, governments are navigating one of the most complex public health challenges of our time: how to regulate emerging nicotine products while protecting youth, safeguarding consumers, and achieving long-term health goals.
At the Global Institute for Novel Nicotine (GINN), we recognize that these concerns are legitimate. Our goal is not to challenge regulation, but to contribute to it constructively. We believe collaboration grounded in evidence, not polarization, is the key to achieving both public health protection and harm reduction progress.
Understanding the Policy Landscape
Policymakers across Europe face difficult questions:
- How can we protect young people from nicotine initiation?
- What are the long-term health impacts of new products?
- How do we prevent marketing that appeals to non-smokers?
- Can we ensure product quality, safety, and transparency?
- How do we balance innovation with precaution?
Recent developments illustrate the growing policy divergence. Countries such as Belgium, France, the Netherlands, and Spain have proposed or enacted bans or severe restrictions on nicotine pouches and other alternatives, while over seven additional member states are considering similar measures. At the EU level, the European Commission is exploring harmonized rules, and global frameworks under WHO COP11 (November) may further shape national approaches.
A Collaborative Path Forward
GINN stands ready to partner with governments and public health authorities to build balanced, evidence-based frameworks. Rather than dismissing regulatory concerns, we seek to help design workable solutions that protect youth, ensure safety, and preserve access for adults seeking reduced-risk alternatives.
1. Youth Protection That Works
Effective prevention requires more than prohibition. GINN advocates for robust age-verification systems, strict marketing standards that limit promotion to adult smokers, targeted enforcement support, and school-based prevention programs that address nicotine use realistically.
2. Evidence-Based Risk Assessment
Policy should follow science, not ideology. Through collaboration with independent experts, including GINN’s Science and Regulations Chair, Dr. Nveed Chaudhary, we promote transparent testing, open data sharing, and comparative risk frameworks that distinguish between combustible and non-combustible products.
3. Quality Standards and Consumer Safety
We support harmonized manufacturing standards, ingredient disclosure, and traceability systems that ensure consumer protection and regulatory confidence. Establishing clear safety benchmarks across markets will help eliminate unregulated products and strengthen legitimate businesses.
4. Proportionate Regulation
Balanced taxation, clear labeling, and strict age enforcement can achieve youth protection and public health gains without driving consumers back to cigarettes or illicit channels. Proportionate regulation also enables governments to collect tax revenue that can fund prevention and enforcement programs.
Why Collaboration Is Better Than Prohibition
Blanket bans may appear decisive, but they often produce unintended consequences:
- Growth of unregulated black markets
- Loss of government oversight and tax revenue
- Increased cross-border noncompliance
- Adult smokers reverting to combustible tobacco
In contrast, evidence-based regulation offers a constructive alternative. It keeps products within regulatory control, safeguards youth through targeted restrictions, and supports adults who want to transition away from high-risk smoking—all while maintaining transparency and accountability across the supply chain.
The Road Ahead
As the EU moves closer to harmonized nicotine regulation and COP11 discussions intensify, GINN is committed to supporting policymakers through:
- Transparency: Sharing independent research and market data openly.
- Accountability: Upholding strong age and marketing restrictions.
- Partnership: Working with authorities to assess and monitor outcomes.
- Science: Prioritizing evidence over ideology in every policy dialogue.
These principles can guide a more unified European approach—one that embraces both precaution and proportionality.
Our Call to Action
To policymakers:
- Conduct full impact assessments before implementing bans.
- Engage harm reduction advocates and scientific experts in policy design.
- Learn from evidence-based models such as Sweden’s smoke-free success.
To industry:
- Uphold the highest standards of product safety and transparency.
- Support strict youth access prevention and responsible marketing.
- Invest in long-term health and toxicology research.
To the public health community:
- Collaborate on designing effective prevention and harm reduction programs.
- Ensure that scientific rigor, not ideology, drives nicotine policy.
A Shared Mission
Europe’s nicotine policy debate should not be framed as a choice between permissiveness and prohibition. The real task is finding balance, between protection and pragmatism, youth safety and adult choice, regulation and innovation.
GINN believes that evidence-based collaboration offers a path where all stakeholders, governments, researchers, manufacturers, and public health advocates, can work toward a shared goal: reducing the death and disease caused by combustible tobacco while protecting future generations.
🤝 Let’s work together.
For partnership and research inquiries: info@ginn.global
