The agreement also includes mutual recognition arrangements that require additives approved in other EU countries to be permitted in the UK. This is a major loophole.

• prohibits cigarettes and roll-your-own tobacco with characterising flavours,
• requires the tobacco industry to submit detailed reports to the Member States on the ingredients used in tobacco products, in particular cigarettes and roll-your-own tobacco,
• requires that health warnings appear on packages of tobacco and related products. Combined (picture and text) health warnings must cover 65% of the front and back of cigarette and roll-your-own tobacco packages,
• sets minimum dimensions for warnings and eliminates small packages for certain tobacco products,
• bans all promotional and misleading elements on tobacco products,
• enables Member States to introduce standardised tobacco packaging,
• introduces EU-wide tracking and tracing to combat illicit trade of tobacco products,
• allows Member States to prohibit internet sales of tobacco and related products,
• sets out safety and quality requirements for consumer electronic cigarettes,
• obliges manufacturers to notify novel tobacco products before placing them on the EU market

Technical specifications for the layout, design and shape of the combined health warnings.

• new, large, written warnings to appear on the front and back of tobacco packaging.
• maximum yields for tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide
• the banning of misleading descriptors such as “light” or “mild”
• the disclosure of ingredients
• a review of the directive
• and enabled Member States to add picture warnings to tobacco packaging

Council Directive 2001/37/EC also incorporates measure from directive 92/41/EC, which bans the sale of oral tobacco in the EU countries with the exemption of Sweden.

The European Commission is required to carry out a review of the Directive every two years. The first review, due in December 2004 was delayed until July 2005. The second review is due in December 2007.

Time-table for implementation of Council Directive 2001/37/EC measures was as follows:

30 Sept 2002: New warnings on packs

31 Dec 2002: Picture specifications proposed by the Commission – delayed until late 2005

31 Dec 2002: Ingredients disclosure

30 Sept 2003: Branding – misleading descriptors etc banned

1 Jan 2004 : Max tar, nicotine, CO yields to apply

31 Dec 2004: First review of the directive was due. This was delayed until July 2005

31 Dec 2004: Commission proposal for common ingredients list – delayed due to lack of agreement on data collection

1 Jan 2007: Max yields applied to exports

• Maximum tar/nicotine/CO yields: All 15 EU countries complied with the deadline. The accession countries did not request transitional periods for compliance.
• Measurement of tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide levels: The Commission acknowledges that the use of machines to measure yields does not reflect actual smoker intake of these substances. However, the Commission is not proposing to revise the current standards until “solid evidence shows that better methods exist to replace them”.
• Labelling: Implementation overall is satisfactory but there have been reports of industry attempts to circumvent the legislation by attempting to hide the warnings, e.g. by the placing of cardboard covers or stickers over the warnings. However such practices are now limited. Evidence suggests that the large warnings are having an impact, with smokers being more motivated to quit smoking. The warnings appear to have been particularly effective among 15-24 year olds.
• Ingredients: There has been little progress in developing a proposal for a common list of ingredients. The Commission argues that the WHO should co-ordinate regulatory efforts through the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.