On the 19th-21st of October, EFA representative at the European Network for Smoking and Tobacco Prevention (ENSP) Roberta Savli participated in their network meeting and capacity building workshop. Together with Nijole Gostautaite Midttun, Lithuanian tobacco control coalition, and Antonella Cardone, Director of the Global Smokefree Partnership, she chaired a capacity building workshop for participants from the Baltic countries, Poland, Russia and Ukraine.
On the basis of the challenges identified by participants, the topic of tobacco products' price and taxation was chosen and, after a short presentation of Article 6 of the World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) and of the European Union directive on tobacco, workshop's participants worked on a draft advocacy plan for their respective countries. During the network meeting, Roberta gave a presentation on the status of the implementation of the tobacco products directive, which will have to be transposed into national legislations by May 2016.
Other topics discussed, included tobacco control in our host country Lithuania, regulation of electronic cigarettes, FCTC Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade, and Article 5 of FCTC on industry intervention.
ENSP Awards for Excellence in Tobacco Control were given to eminent Lithuanian experts and the first one was awarded to current EU Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Andriukatis for his role in the adoption of the tobacco products directive, which he initiated as Lithuanian Minister of Health under the Lithuanian EU Presidency.