Drs Anna Gilmore and Katherine Smith from the School for Health presented their research findings and debated their implications for policy in the European Parliament last week.
Three members of the Tobacco Control Research Group (Drs Gary Fooks, Anna Gilmore and Katherine Smith) recently published a series of papers which explore corporate influence on the Better Regulation agenda in Europe and concerns with the European Union’s current approach to impact assessment.
This research was the subject of a meeting hosted by MEP Arlene McCarthy in the European Parliament last week and entitled ‘EU Better Regulation: from economic to citizen-centric.’
The meeting was organized by the Smokefree Partnership who published a report, based on the University of Bath research, to accompany the event.
The debate explored whether Better Regulation (including regulatory impact assessment and stakeholder consultation), as currently constructed in the EU, focuses too much on economic and business impacts to the detriment of health and well-being. The discussion drew on the work of the Tobacco Control Research Group along with other recent developments including the Stiglitz Report and the EU Beyond GDP initiative.
Dr Katherine Smith presented the research findings showing that British American Tobacco (BAT), with a group of other major regulated industries, had played a key role in driving the EU’s Better Regulation agenda. Dr Gilmore was part of an expert panel that then went on to debate the implications of the research for policy.
The meeting comes some seven months after Dr Gilmore presented her previous research findings on the tobacco industry’s influence on tobacco control policy in the European Parliament.