Cecilia Kindstrand

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Cecilia Kindstrand is Director Public Affairs for Swedish Match at the company’s EU Representation office in Brussels.1

Lobbying EU Officials on Tobacco Products Directive Revision (TPD)

Between 2009 and 2014 the EU reviewed its Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) which included the ban on snus sales. During this period, Swedish Match lobbied to have the snus ban removed but was unsuccessful. Kindstrand directly lobbied European Commission officials from 2010 – 2013.23 She was supported by Karin Riis-Jørgensen, senior advisor at Brussels-based public relations firm Kreab Gavin Anderson. They both met representatives of the European Commission’s Secretariat General on 16 March 2011 and 6 March 2012 to discuss the review of the TPD.4

Kindstrand attended the meeting with the European Commission’s Secretariat General on 18 September 2012 where she and her colleagues expressed their ‘’views on the current situation regarding snus and what we see as a logical step in the future, that is regulation for all smokefree tobacco products in the EU.’’5

Speaker at Events

Kindstrand was listed as one of the ‘’confirmed speakers’’ at the Global Tobacco and Nicotine Forum 2018 in 11-14 September 2018 in London.67
She also presented at the Global Nicotine Forum (GFN) in 2017. GFN is an annual event organised by Knowledge Action Change Limited (KAC) (which has received funding from Nicoventures in the past) headed by Professor Gerry Stimson.
Kindstrand presented Swedish Match’s perspective on harm reduction and strongly criticised the EU ban on snus sales.8
Kindstrand claimed that the TPD had failed consumers, that the ban on snus has a lot of negative consequences for people’s health, and that there was too much red tape for so-called reduced risk products.8 Kindstrand also highlighted opportunities for the industry to engage ‘’in the activities to speed up the process to get rid of the worst parts of the TPD’’.8 She pointed to the midterm revision of the TPD and suggested the industry would ‘’have the opportunity to start making noise’’.8 Lastly, Kindstrand also suggested that ‘’better regulation agenda provides opportunities to engage on problematic areas via the REFIT platform’’.8

Affiliations

In 2013, Kindstrand was the Chair of the TPD taskforce of the European Smokeless Tobacco Council (ESTOC).9
The ESTOC was an industry lobby group that campaigned against the EU’s ban on snus and other oral tobacco products.

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References

  1. ↑EU Transparency Register, Transparency Register, last updated 21 March 2018, accessed February 2019
  2. ↑Greens-efa.eu, Information sheet About Meeting/Contacts with the Tobacco Industry, 4 December 2012, accessed March 2019
  3. ↑Corporate Europe Observatory, The Commission’s Shabby Implementation of UN Rules for Tobacco Lobbying, 14 December 2012, accessed March 2019
  4. ↑European Parliament Budgetary Control Committee, Questionnaire from the Committee on Budgetary Control to OLAF and to the Commission Secretariat concerning the resignation of the former Commissioner John Dalli, Questionnaire with replies (English version), 30 November 2012
  5. ↑C. Kindstrand, Thank for your today’s meeting. Email from Kindstrand-Isaksson to EU officials, dated 18 September 2012
  6. ↑Global Tobacco & Nicotine Forum, Mapping the Future: Where next with innovation and harm reduction, 2018, accessed August 2018
  7. ↑Global Tobacco & Nicotine Forum, Look Who’s Talking, 2018, accessed August 2018
  8. ↑abcdeC. Kindstrand, Q: Borderline and novel products, markets and consumers, are regulations fit for purpose? A: No!, Swedish Match, 17 June 2017, accessed February 2018
  9. ↑ESTOC, About ESTOC: Structure, ESTOC website, undated, archived 24 March 2013, accessed March 2019

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