President
European Commission

 

Dear President,

I have received a complaint against the European Commission. The complaint is about how the Commission, and most specifically its Directorate-General for Trade and Economic Security (DG TRADE) handles interactions with representatives of the tobacco industry.

The complainant is an NGO specialised in the fight against tobacco consumption and exposure to tobacco smoke. In 2025, the complainant published a report on the activities of the tobacco industry vis-à-vis EU institutions.[1] Based on requests for public access to documents, the complainant argues that DG TRADE would have engaged in regular, non-necessary, and non-transparent interactions with the tobacco industry, the nature of which would be liable to undermine tobacco control efforts and public health policies in third countries, especially in low- and middle-income countries.

In the complainant’s view, this would be in breach of Article 5(3) of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), to which the EU is a Party, and of the 2008 WHO Guidelines on the implementation of Article 5(3). 

I have decided to open an inquiry into this complaint.

As a first step, I have decided that it is necessary to inspect the following documents:

A. The non-redacted versions of the 59 documents identified in the two requests for public access to documents made by the complainant. I would be grateful if, in doing so, the Commission could conduct an additional search for any documents not already identified that would fall within the scope of that request, independently of their registration status;

B. The same documents for the years 2025 and 2026, up to the day on which this inspection request is made;

C. The full list of meetings and/or phone calls held with representatives of the tobacco industry or of the interests of that industry, for the years 2023-2026, independently of the service/hierarchical level at which they occurred;

D. Any assessment of the “necessity test” conducted in relation to the meetings and/or phone calls mentioned under point C above;

E. All documents mentioning tobacco or nicotine (including, but not limited to, position papers, internal emails, proposals, briefings, notes, meeting agendas and minutes, etc.) related to exchanges with the third countries referred to in the documents identified under points A and B above.

I would be grateful if the Commission could provide these documents by 18 September 2026.

Information or documents that the Commission considers to be confidential will not be disclosed to the complainant or any other person without the prior agreement of the Commission.[2]

Should your services require any further information concerning this inspection request, please do not hesitate to contact Ms Amandine Le Bellec, who is responsible for this inquiry.

Yours sincerely,

Teresa Anjinho

European Ombudsman

Strasbourg, 18/08/2026

 

[1] Contre-feu and STOP, ‘Behind closed doors: How the tobacco lobby influences the European Union and beyond’, 2025, available on the WHO extranet: https://extranet.who.int/fctcapps/fctcapps/fctc/kh/article12/e-library/behind-closed-doors-how-tobacco-lobby-influences-european

[2] Please clearly mark such material ‘Confidential’. Encrypted emails can be sent to our dedicated mailbox. Information and documents of this kind will be deleted from the European Ombudsman’s files shortly after the inquiry has ended.