Source: New Europe
Date: 2010-02-01
Author: Clara Hogan

Tobacco smuggling could get a lot harsher as an EP conference
this evening, a UN Conference in March and a World Health
Organisation report all point towards governments being too lax
on the issue

European Union officials and international experts fighting
against global illicit tobacco sales will meet tonight at a
conference to discuss the ongoing concern over the illegal
cigarette market just weeks before a vital United Nations meeting
in March on the issue.

The UN will meet from 14 - 21 March on a new protocol that could
secure a binding international agreement to combat the massive
market of illegal tobacco sales. It will be the fourth meeting of
the International Negotiating Body on the supplementary protocol
to the already-in-place Framework Convention on Tobacco Control,
which passed in 2005 and was the first treaty negotiated under
the auspices of the World Health Organization.

Belgian Green MEP Bart Staes, who is hosting tonight\'s
conference in Brussels to push more EU leadership on the issue,
said it is necessary to have strong action rather thansimply more
political talk.