Behind Closed Doors

Big Tobacco’s lobbying machine has extensive global reach and influence—and lack of government transparency often complicates efforts to trace its movements. Now, a new investigation helps expose the scope of the industry’s influence efforts across the EU.

Contre-Feu and STOP examined publicly available EU lobbying databases and documents obtained via freedom of information requests to the European Commission.

Our analysis reveals the EU is not living up to its obligations as a Party to a global treaty, the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, to minimize and make transparent any interactions with the tobacco industry. As a result, policies and EU citizens are not fully protected from the influence of Big Tobacco. Further, the documents revealed that the industry is trying to weaponize EU diplomatic and trade power to undermine the sovereign health policy of other countries.

Read the report to learn how the EU, and governments everywhere, can reject the industry’s efforts to undermine lifesaving policies.

In partnership with