Tobacco lobby steps up Brussels push as EU rewrites rules – POLITICO

European lawmakers have held four times as many meetings with tobacco and nicotine lobbyists in the past two years compared with the entire previous parliamentary term, according to data analyzed by POLITICO.

Since this Parliament took office in the summer of 2024, more than 400 meetings have been declared, compared with about 100 in the 2019-2024 term, according to data collected by the Smoke Free Partnership, a coalition of NGOs, from the Transparency Register. European lawmakers are required to publicly disclose their meetings on the register.  

Meanwhile, most meetings this term were with right-leaning MEPs. Some 75% were with lawmakers from the center-right European People’s Party, the right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists and the far-right Patriots for Europe groups.