Article 152: protect and improve health across all EU policy areas

The public health competence as laid down in article 152 EC allows for incentive measures to protect and improve human health. These measures should complement national policies. Consequently, the harmonisation of national Member States’ tobacco control laws is not within the scope of article 152, nor is any binding EU tobacco control legislation.

Article 152 does require health to be protected in all Community policies. Thus, tobacco control objectives can - or indeed should - be mainstreamed into EU policy areas other than public health. Agriculture, Taxation and the Internal Market are examples of policy areas where actions to this effect could be taken.

Article 95: internal market competence scope for binding measures

In contrast to the limitations of Article 152, the EU’s competence to regulate the internal market does enable the development of binding measures, such as regulations, directives and decisions. This explains why the current binding EU legal measures on tobacco control are not based on the EU’s public health competency. Instead, they are predominantly founded on the EU's jurisdiction in the field of the internal market, as laid down in Article 95 EC. It is important to note that the EU’s competence here is limited to those aspects of tobacco control that involve cross-border activities.