Request for documents on contacts, research references, and draft texts related to harm reduction products and the revision of the Tobacco Products Directive
Dear Health and Food Safety,
Under the right of access to documents in the EU treaties, as developed in Regulation 1049/2001, I am requesting documents which contain the following information:
I request access to all documents (including correspondence, meeting minutes, notes, draft texts, impact assessments, and internal evaluations) from 1 January 2021 to the present, held by DG SANTE, concerning:
– Contacts with tobacco companies (including but not limited to BAT and PMI) or their representatives regarding “harm reduction products” such as e-cigarettes, heated tobacco, and nicotine pouches.
– References to or use of research from the “Omni” platform, or other industry-funded platforms, in policy preparation, consultations, or internal evaluations of harm reduction.
– Internal assessments, literature reviews, or scientific notes referring to studies by national institutes such as RIVM in the context of evaluating the health impact of alternative nicotine products.
– Drafts and internal versions of the planned revision of the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD), including interservice consultations and related comments.
I would like the search to cover the period from 1 January 2021 to the present.
If parts of the requested documents are covered by exceptions under Regulation 1049/2001, I kindly ask for partial access to be granted to the remaining parts. I am also open to receiving the documents in electronic format.
Thank you for your consideration of this request.
Yours faithfully,
Irene van den Berg
Dear Sir or Madam,
We hereby acknowledge the receipt of your request for access to documents
sent on 26/09/2025 and registered on 26/09/2025 under the case number
2025/4897.
We will handle your request within 15 working days as of the date of
registration. The time-limit expires on 17/10/2025. We will let you know
if we need to extend this time limit for additional 15 working days.
To find more information on how we process your personal data, please see
[1]the privacy statement.
Yours faithfully,
Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety - Access to Documents
European Commission
References
Visible links
1. https://ec.europa.eu/info/principles-and...
Dear Ms Van Den Berg,
We are writing concerning your request for access to Commission documents
registered on 26/09/2025 under case number EASE 2025/4897.
We are currently working on your request. However, we have not yet been
able to gather all the elements necessary to carry out a full analysis of
your request. We will not be able to send you the reply within the
prescribed time limit expiring on 17/10/2025.
The application concerns documents held by different Services, which must
be consulted.
Therefore, in line with Article 7(3) of [1]Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001,
we need to extend this time limit by 15 additional working days. The new
time limit expires on 07/11/2025.
We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.
Kind regards,
DG SANTE, Unit B4
References
Visible links
1. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/...
Dear Ms Van Den Berg,
We are writing to you concerning your access to documents requests
2025/4897 and 2025/4986 to acknowledge that the time limit to reply to
your access to documents requests expire today (07/11/2025) and we
apologize for the delay.
The assessment of the documents falling within the scope of your requests
required more time due to internal consultations. We would like to inform
you that your requests are being handled.
Please be reassured that we are doing our utmost to provide you with the
replies as soon as possible.
Thank you very much for your understanding.
Kind regards,
Secretariat
European Commission
Directorate–General for Health and Food Safety
Unit B4 Disease prevention and Health promotion
Dear Health and Food Safety,
Please pass this on to the person who reviews confirmatory applications.
I am filing the following confirmatory application with regards to my access to documents request 'Request for documents on contacts, research references, and draft texts related to harm reduction products and the revision of the Tobacco Products Directive'.
The response to my request is long overdue. By law, under all circumstances, the authority should have responded by now .
A full history of my request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.asktheeu.org/request/request...
Yours faithfully,
Irene van den Berg
