The Independent British Vape Trade Association (IBVTA) and the French Fédération Internationale de la Vape (FIVAPE) joined their experience to create on June 16 the European Coalition for Independent Vape (ECIV), as declared in a press release.
ECIV’s commitment is to support and defend of the European independent vaping industry. This joint effort may lead to share, at the European level, best practices in the domain.
ECIV will serve as a platform to allow the independent vape trade to engage more effectively on an EU-wide basis. It will also provide an opportunity for the independent industry to come together to discuss issues of mutual interest and to share best practice. Critically, it will help the independent industry to provide a coordinated response to the European and International challenges threatening the sector.
This includes the European Tobacco Products Directive, discussions taking place at the WHO Framework Convention of Tobacco Control in India later this year, and the possible threat of the European Commission subjecting vape products to excise.
ECIV claims its independence from Big Tobacco and Big Pharma
Vaping products are neither tobacco products nor medicines and this particular status calls to a specific regulation. The ECIV wants a proportionated regulation based on the principle that vaping is at least 95% safer than the use of conventional tobacco.
All ECIV members, nationally and at the European level, are independent from the tobacco and pharmaceutical industries.
By defending the rights of independent vaping professionals in Europe, the ECIV will also support millions of European vapers’ interests who deserve access to the widest range of vaping products, including e-liquids, with a guaranty of safety.
Jean Moiroud, President of the FIVAPE and member of the ECIV’s directorate committee declared:
“I am proud that FIVAPE is joining forces with our colleagues in IBVTA to form a durable partnership that can best represent the interests of the independent vape industry at the European level. This open and transparent initiative will allow us to work more closely together to shape the future of vaping in Europe and to defend the interests of millions of individual vapers.”
Fraser Cropper, President of the IBVTA and member of the ECIV’s directorate committee declared:
“The European Tobacco Products Directive poses numerous difficulties for the independent vaping industry in the EU. Critically it stifles free trade across the 28 Member States, imposes unreasonable and unjustifiable burdens on our businesses, and will make it harder or impossible for vapers to access products they rely on. Building on what IBVTA and FIVAPE have achieve respectively at the national level, ECIV will allow us to build on these achievements at the European level and to fight for the recognition that vaping deserves. As we make progress, I look forward to welcoming other independent organisations into the ECIV fold.”
