How Ukraine must strengthen anti-tobacco policy on its path to EU and what stands in the way
Protecting people from the harms of tobacco and nicotine is one of the European Union’s public health priorities.
For Ukraine, the issue is even more pressing given the strain of the ongoing war and the country’s deepening demographic crisis.
Ukraine’s obligations as an EU candidate country in the field of anti-tobacco policy are laid out in the National Programme for the Adaptation of Legislation to EU law.
Ukraine has demonstrated progress in this area, but not enough, due to systematic resistance.
Read more in the article by Dmytro Kupyra of the NGO "Life": Smoking less on the path to EU: how Ukraine is fulfilling its anti-tobacco obligations.
In the European Union, policies aimed at protecting public health from the harms of tobacco and nicotine are based on three key directives: the Tobacco Products Directive (2014/40/EU), the Tobacco Advertising Directive (2003/33/EC) and the Tobacco Excise Directive (2011/64/EU).
These directives form the basis for adapting Ukrainian anti-tobacco legislation as part of preparations for EU membership.
Ukraine was supposed to begin implementing European standards in this field under the terms of the Association Agreement, which entered into force on 1 September 2017.
However, throughout this entire period, the tobacco industry has systematically opposed the implementation of Directive 2014/40/EU, Directive 2011/64/EU and the ratification of the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products. This has slowed Ukraine’s fulfilment of its European integration obligations while simultaneously deepening the demographic and economic losses caused by tobacco and nicotine consumption.
In particular, Ukraine’s excise policy is lagging behind reality.
For nearly ten years, the country has been trying to reach the EU’s minimum cigarette excise rate of 90 euros per 1,000 cigarettes.
An eight-year plan (2018–2025) was intended to gradually bring the rate up to that level. However, the devaluation of the hryvnia and the economic consequences of Russia’s full-scale invasion made this goal unattainable.
By 2025, the effective rate still had not crossed the 70-euro mark.
At the beginning of 2025, a new law entered into force which, due to lobbying by the tobacco industry, extended the timeline for reaching the 90-euro rate until 2028.
As a result, implementing just one directive from the package of EU membership requirements will take Ukraine at least 11 years.
Meanwhile, the European Union is already in the process of revising its tobacco excise rules. The EU is considering increasing the minimum rate to 215 euros per 1,000 cigarettes, as well as introducing mandatory minimum rates for new tobacco and nicotine products.
At the same time, the current average excise rate across EU member states already stands at 211 euros.
In other words, most member states are not aiming for the minimum threshold, but for significantly higher national standards in order to protect public health.
Under current Ukrainian legislation, by 2028 Ukraine will reach a level that, by then, will be 2.4 times lower than the new EU minimum.
Therefore, if Ukraine wants to be realistically prepared for EU accession in the foreseeable future, the government and Ukrainian parliament should urgently revise tobacco excise policy to account for the planned EU increases.
This would save thousands of Ukrainian lives while also helping replenish the state budget.
Are European anti-tobacco directives actually effective in protecting public health?
Since 2012, the share of smokers in the EU has decreased by 4%, while tobacco-related deaths have fallen by 8.6%.
Importantly, the sharpest decline in smoking occurred among young people aged 15-24 – from 29% to 22%.
The reduction in smoking prevalence in the EU has been driven primarily by tax policy – namely, high excise duties on tobacco products.
Forty percent of smoking cessation cases are linked directly to the price of cigarettes.