Stockholm: The Irish Council presidency has tabled new compromise texts on EU tobacco tax reform and wants finance ministers to agree a general approach at the ECOFIN meeting on 9 November 2026. Two documents dated 20 October, circulated to delegations only, cover the directive on the structure and rates of excise duty and the one on general arrangements. The Council’s High-Level Working Party on Tax Questions discussed them on 26 October, according to trade outlet Vaping Post. The meeting aimed to settle open questions on minimum rates, e-liquids and the treatment of nicotine pouches before ministers meet.

Unanimity of all 27 member states is required for any EU tobacco tax reform, and that is the problem. The vote was first expected at the October ECOFIN and was postponed to give Sweden time to form a government. Stockholm has been run by a caretaker government since the September election, and the Riksdag rejected one prime ministerial bid on 15 October. Observers expect a caretaker cabinet to struggle to win a negotiating mandate from its EU affairs committee.

Sweden is also the main opponent on substance. Its trade minister, Benjamin Dousa, pledged in April to block the higher tax on nicotine pouches. About ten other member states have reservations: Italy worries about smuggling, Romania and Portugal raise fiscal sovereignty, and Greece, Hungary, Croatia, Malta, Czechia, Slovakia and Luxembourg say the minimum rates are too high.

The Commission proposed the EU tobacco tax reform in July 2025 to update rules that date back more than a decade and to bring new products into the excise net. The latest compromise would, for the first time, set a minimum excise duty on e-liquids. An earlier Cypriot compromise had put the EU floor at €0.36 per millilitre, and the Irish text’s rates are not public. The European Parliament, which is only consulted on tax, rejected the proposal by 439 votes to 181.

National examples show why the stakes are uneven. Lithuania already taxes e-liquid at €1.56 per millilitre in 2026 and will raise the rate to €3.91 from 1 January 2027, far above any proposed EU floor. Countries with low taxes fear price shocks and cross-border trade, while high-tax states want a level playing field that stops shoppers crossing borders.

What happens after 9 November matters for health policy and public revenue alike. Failure to agree this year would hand the file to the Lithuanian presidency from January 2027, and trade reporting says tobacco tax is not among its declared priorities. That would leave the EU tobacco tax reform stuck for at least another half year.

Ministers therefore face a choice between a diluted compromise and no deal. Whichever they pick, the EU tobacco tax reform will show how far unanimity in tax matters can still deliver common health and revenue goals.