More taxes on tobacco? The EC needs to leave our personal pleasures alone

The European Commission, under Commissioner for Climate Wopke Hoekstra, is preparing to overhaul the 2011 Tobacco Excise Tax Directive. The plan is to raise taxes on cigarettes, e-cigarettes, and nicotine pouches, with 15 EU countries like Germany and France cheering it on. It is packaged as a public health win, but let us be clear: This is a bureaucratic overreach that will backfire. It will fuel crime, hammer the poor, and erode personal freedom.

First and foremost, it is smokers who know the smoking risks. But this tax hike is not the answer. It is a step toward a sterile, controlled existence that strips away much of what makes us human.

Does taxing tobacco into oblivion make people quit? The data says no. A 2023 World Health Organisation (WHO) study found that a 10 per cent price increase reduces smoking rates by a measly 1-2 per cent. Smokers do not just quit -they adapt. Mostly, they turn to the black market.

The EU 2024 report on illicit trade estimates that 8.5 per cent of cigarettes consumed in the bloc are smuggled, costing taxpayers €11 billion annually. Turkey, with its dirt-cheap tobacco, is a smuggler paradise, flooding borders with contraband. Higher taxes will not empty ashtrays, they will fill criminals coffers. The Commission is ignoring this, blindly assuming price hikes equal progress.

Why the particular focus on tobacco? Smoking is harmful, sure, but it is not alone. Sugar is linked to 1.7 million deaths yearly from diabetes and heart disease, according to a 2023 Lancet study. Ultra-processed foods drive Europe’s 23 per cent obesity rate, per Eurostat data. Alcohol claims 800,000 lives annually, says the WHO. Air pollution, which the European Environment Agency ties to 400,000 premature deaths a year, is another silent killer.

Yet where are the punitive taxes on soda, snacks, or cheap wine? Why no total war on diesel fumes? Brussels picks tobacco as its villain while giving other risks a free pass. It is inconsistent, a nanny state flexing its power selectively, leaving us wondering who is next on their hit list.

The poor get the worst of it. A 2024 OECD report shows low-income EU households spend 40 per cent of their income on basics like food and rent. Higher tobacco taxes do not push them toward kale smoothies; they drive them to smuggled cigarettes or deeper financial strain.

Meanwhile, Hoekstra and his Brussels colleagues, insulated in their glass offices, seem oblivious to this reality. Their policies do not empower, they punish. The working class, already stretched thin, faces another blow, while the elite lecture from afar. It is not compassion. It is condescension.

This tax hike is not just about revenue or health, it is also about control. The Commission vision echoes the rock band Radiohead’s dystopian lyric: “fitter, happier, more productive”. But what kind of humanity are we building? For many, a cigarette is not just nicotine, it is a moment of connection, a pause in a hectic day, a spark of joy over coffee or music. It is flawed, human, alive.

The word “dictatorship” comes from the Latin dictare — to prescribe, to command. That is what Brussels is doing: Dictating how we live, eroding our freedom to choose our pleasures, our vices, our lives. Hoekstra’s plan is a cog in this machine, a step toward a world where every choice is taxed, every joy regulated.

Should we tax every unhealthy habit? Slap levies on fatty foods, late nights, or stress itself? The WHO estimates workplace stress contributes to 120,000 deaths a year in Europe. Where is the tax on toxic jobs? The logic falls apart. Health campaigns should inform, not coerce. People are not robots to be programmed. We are individuals who weigh risks and rewards.

What is the endgame? A sanitised society where every vice is outlawed, every pleasure policed? This is not a future worth having. Freedom means the right to make bad choices, to live imperfectly. Hoekstra’s tax hike will not crush smoking. It will boost crime, burden the poor, and chip away at our humanity. The Commission needs to back off.

Millions of smokers will keep lighting up, not out of defiance, but because life is worth savouring, smoke, addictions and all. Brussels should tackle real issues, like poverty or pollution, and leave our personal pleasures alone. Stop preaching, Wopke. Let us live.