Request for documents on JRC studies, reviews and communications regarding the health impact of harm reduction products
Dear Joint Research Centre,
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 studies, literature reviews, internal notes, correspondence, or communications from 1 January 2021 to the present concerning the health impact of harm reduction products (including e-cigarettes, heated tobacco, and nicotine pouches) and their role in the revision of the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) and Tobacco Tax Directive (TTD).
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 Irene van den Berg,
We are writing to you concerning your request for access to documents sent
on 26/09/2025.
In accordance with Article 9(3) of the European Commission’s Detailed
rules for the application of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, applications
for access to documents shall indicate the country of residence of the
applicant and their postal address. In the absence of such information,
the applications will not be processed.
We would appreciate it if you could provide us the necessary
clarifications (postal address and country of residence) in this respect
within 5 working days. In the absence of a reply from your part within
this deadline, we will close your request.
Please note that you can submit your request for access to Commission
documents directly via [1]EASE.
Thank you for your understanding.
Kind regards,
JRC Access to Documents Team
Dear [email address],
Please find below my postal address as requested:
Linker Rottekade 292, unit 1.7
3034 CV Rotterdam
The Netherlands
Yours sincerely,
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 02/10/2025 under the case number
2025/5066.
We will handle your request within 15 working days as of the date of
registration. The time-limit expires on 23/10/2025. 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,
Joint Research Centre - Access to Documents
European Commission
References
Visible links
1. https://ec.europa.eu/info/principles-and...
Hello,
Please find attached a message concerning your request for access to
Commission documents registered under the above case number 2025/5066.
Please acknowledge the receipt of this message by return email.
Kind regards,
JRC Access to Documents Team
Dear Joint Research Centre,
Thank you for your reply and for forwarding the reference to the 2021 publication by Zelinkova and Wenzl.
However, the paper you mention appears unrelated to the scope of my request. My application specifically concerns documents held by the JRC or other Commission services referring to the health impact of harm-reduction products (e-cigarettes, heated tobacco, nicotine pouches) and their role in the revision of the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) and Tobacco Tax Directive (TTD).
To clarify, I am looking for:
– Any internal assessments, notes, or communications by the JRC evaluating or summarising existing evidence on the health impact of these products;
– Any contributions from the JRC (scientific, technical or advisory) to DG SANTE or DG TAXUD in the context of preparing or revising the TPD or TTD;
– Any correspondence between the JRC and other Commission services mentioning harm-reduction products in relation to public-health or policy discussions.
If no such documents exist, I would appreciate an explicit confirmation to that effect, so that I can consider whether to submit a confirmatory application under Article 7(2) of Regulation 1049/2001.
Thank you again for your time and assistance.
Yours faithfully,
Irene van den Berg
Dear Ms Irene van den Berg,
Thank you for the confirmation of the receipt of our reply.
We confirm that there were no other documents identified by the JRC that would fall under the scope of your request. It is our understanding that you have made other requests as well to other Directorates-General on this/similar topic, and they will come back to you regarding them. Please note that the JRC response to your request regarding case number 2025/5066 does not cover the additional requests, and the concerned Directorates-General will respond to you in due time.
Please also note that the JRC response covered documents that originated or were otherwise held by the JRC, in line with our understanding of your request. Should you consider that your other requests do not cover the same topic and in case you would like other Directorates-General to assess your original request made under case number 2025/5066, we kindly ask you to submit a new request to the relevant services. Alternatively, please inform us, and we will facilitate the opening of new requests to the specified services.
Finally, we confirm that in accordance with Article 7(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1049/2001, you are entitled to make a confirmatory application requesting the Commission to review its position also in cases where the position expressed is a positive one (with documents fully disclosed), such as our reply to your request under case number 2025/5066.
Such a confirmatory application should be addressed to the Secretariat-General of the Commission within 15 working days upon receipt of the reply. Where the original application was not submitted to the Commission through the EASE portal, you can submit it by mail to:
European Commission
Secretariat-General
Transparency, Document Management & Access to Documents (SG.A.2)
BERL 7/DCS
B-1049 Bruxelles
or by email, to: [email address] .
Kind regards,
JRC Access to Documents Team