Europe tests divergent tobacco controls as smoking remains widespread
European countries are tightening tobacco and nicotine rules through generational sales bans, higher age limits, pricing and flavor restrictions. Smoking still affects 24% of EU citizens, while Sweden’s low cigarette use illustrates the growing importance of alternative nicotine products.
Europe pursues a smoke-free generation
Nearly one-quarter of European Union citizens, or 24%, smoke, according to L’Express. The rate reaches 29% among people aged 15-24, despite substantial progress in tobacco control. The European Commission’s Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan aims to create a “tobacco-free generation” by 2040, but national governments are following markedly different routes toward that objective.
The policy challenge is also expanding beyond cigarettes. Electronic cigarettes, heated tobacco and nicotine pouches have created additional public-health concerns and complicated regulation. Governments must now decide whether these products should be treated like conventional tobacco, restricted as a separate category or used as part of efforts to move consumers away from smoking.
France, Ireland and the UK tighten controls
France has reduced the number of daily smokers by four million over ten years, while the age at which people start smoking has risen faster than in most European countries. Its strategy combines prevention, regulation and cessation support. Measures include plain packaging, higher prices, more smoke-free areas and better access to nicotine-replacement treatments.
Ireland remained at 17% smokers in 2025, but the Tobacco Control Scale ranks it first in Europe for tobacco control. Ireland became the first EU member to ban smoking in enclosed public spaces in 2004, maintains Europe’s highest tobacco prices and regulates heated-tobacco products in the same way as cigarettes. Dublin is preparing to raise the minimum purchasing age from 18 to 21.
The UK Parliament adopted a more radical measure in April: anyone born after 2008 will be permanently prohibited from buying tobacco. The policy is designed to produce a smoke-free generation by progressively removing legal access. Its practical enforcement remains uncertain, however, because demand could shift toward less visible or illicit channels rather than disappear.
Sweden and Latvia target nicotine products
Sweden is the first European country with daily smoking below 5%, yet one in four Swedes still consumes nicotine every day. That contrast largely reflects the popularity of snus, small tobacco pouches placed beneath the upper lip. Snus sales have been prohibited in the EU since 1992, but Sweden secured an exemption. France prohibited white snus containing nicotine but no tobacco in March.
Latvia introduced stricter tobacco and nicotine regulation on January 1, 2025, with a particular focus on youth consumption. It became the first EU country to raise the legal purchasing age for nicotine products from 18 to 20. Retailers face fines of €280 to €700, while all vaping flavors other than tobacco have been prohibited.
Bulgaria highlights the enforcement gap
Bulgaria presents the opposite end of the European market. The country was the world’s largest tobacco exporter in the 1970s and supplied the Soviet bloc, although its production has since sharply declined. It nevertheless recorded the EU’s highest smoking rate in 2024, at 35%.
L’Express links that prevalence to the tobacco industry’s strong influence, persistent political instability and some of Europe’s lowest tobacco taxation. An average cigarette pack costs less than €4. The comparison across Europe shows that governments are testing controls over price, access, product design and places of consumption, while differing smoking and nicotine-use rates leave no single national model as an obvious template.
