According to the recent study ‘KPMG Project Stella’ on the consumption of illicit cigarettes in the EU, 43.6 billion illicit cigarettes were consumed in the EU in 2018. Illicit cigarette consumption is estimated to have cost governments EUR 10 billion euros in lost revenue in 2018. Of the 15 countries included in the study, the largest volume of illicit cigarette consumption was found in Greece (38.5% of the 3.9 billion cigarettes consumed in Greece in 2018).

It is vital that we step up our efforts to combat this phenomenon, which costs a huge amount of revenue and costs numerous jobs in the EU, and to deepen our cooperation with all stakeholders, the academic world, civil society and legitimate cigarette companies.

One year after the European Commission adopted its 2nd Action Plan to fight the illicit tobacco trade 2018-2022 (COM (2018) 0846 of 7.12.2018), can the Commission say:

1 What action have the Commission and OLAF already taken in this regard? What were the results of that action?

2 How is it planning to tackle the rise of illegal cigarette factories on European soil?

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Answer given by Mr Hahn on behalf of the European Commission here