The Polish authorities are working on amending the anti-smoking law, which will prohibit the sale of the so-called innovative tobacco products with a characteristic aroma. The introduction of such provisions is related to the EU directive. 20 EU countries have already introduced this ban, but in Poland the ministries of agriculture and development want to delay the entry into force of the new regulations by up to several years – writes Wirtualna Polska. These regulations are a big problem for the tobacco industry, because 8 out of 10 people who use a tobacco heater choose a cartridge with flavor. Therefore, what may be disturbing is the discovery of the Polish People's Party that on June 18, 2024, a meeting was held in the office of Deputy Prime Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, in which, apart from him, the Deputy Minister of Development and Technology from the Polish People's Party, Jacek Tomczak, the Deputy Minister of Agriculture from the Polish People's Party, Stefan Krajewski, and a special guest – Jacek Olczak, the president of Philip Morris International, the largest tobacco company in the world.
Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz met with the president of the tobacco concern
There are several problematic aspects of Kosiniak-Kamysz's meeting with Jacek Olczak things. Firstly, the meeting was not announced correctly. WP couldn't find it initially information on this topic. It was only found on the PSL website. Krzysztof Izdebski, a lawyer from the Batory Foundation, told WP that not only did such a meeting during work on the anti-smoking law look simply bad, but since it took place at the Chancellery of the Prime Minister, it should have been announced by the press service governmentand not by a political party.
Prime Minister Kosiniak-Kamysz meets in secret with the head of a tobacco company, at the same time torpedoing the draft anti-smoking law. PSL again in the name of big business, without transparency and against ordinary people. This is not the Poland we agreed on…
– this is how Robert Biedroń from the New Left commented on X.
PSL spokesman Miłosz Motyka told WP, that there are no secret meetings at the Chancellery of the Prime Minister, and those that do take place are recorded. – Information on this subject was made public – added Motyka.
PSL sees no problem. Przemysław Czarnek takes their side
PSL members interviewed by WP believe that there is nothing wrong with the meeting between the deputy prime minister and the president of the tobacco company. – Business has its place in the dialogue about the economy and country development. I believe it is justified to meet with entrepreneurs who invest in Poland, pay taxes here, and who need dialogue, said the vice-president of PSL, Urszula Pasławska, to the portal. In her opinion, such meetings with business are a necessity and an element of the functioning of the state. Miłosz Motyka even says that “it is the duty of government members to meet with representatives of businesses that have a direct impact on the environment of farmers and growers.”
Przemysław Czarnek defended PSL's meeting with the tobacco industry in the same way. In an interview with WP he also talked about duty. He emphasized, however, that such meetings must be held officially. – If such a meeting took place, there is nothing wrong with it. But it should be communicated to the public, Czarnek said.
WP journalists emphasize one more thing – the media's silence about their publications. “This is the world we live in. The Deputy Prime Minister meets with the president of a tobacco giant at the height of the legislative frenzy. The circumstances are unclear, the case stinks from a mile away, we report it in WP. There is silence, no one says anything, 1 medium discusses the text, but ASAP it disappears. Poland 2024” – wrote Paweł Kapusta, editor-in-chief of WP. The text about the scandal was described and deleted by Wprost. Apart from that Salon24.pl published a discussion of the WP material on Monday.
“Greetings to the editorial team Weekly 'Directly'. Let me guess: Philip Morris is your client, but someone in the editorial office didn't get it and behaved decently by mistake?” wrote on X Patryk Słowik, WP journalist.