The European Commission has given the green light for a bill looking to ban disposable e-cigarettes in Belgium, reports Euractiv.

In December 2022, the Belgian government published an inter-federal strategy for a tobacco-free generation, which aims to reduce the number of smokers aged 15-24 to 6 per cent or less by 2028, according to Euractiv. One of the suggested methods to achieve a tobacco-free generation was to ban disposable e-cigarettes from 1 January 2026. Belgium needed the approval from the European Commission to implement these new provisions in order to comply with EU law, in particular the Tobacco Products Directive (Directive 2014/40/EU).
“The national provisions banning the placing on the market of disposable electronic cigarettes containing nicotine, notified by the Kingdom of Belgium […], are approved,” says the Commission note, signed by Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides.
To begin with, the ban will only concern e-cigarettes containing nicotine, however, this could change in the future.
“Given that only the placing on the market of disposable electronic cigarettes containing nicotine falls within the scope of Directive 2014/40/EU, the scope of this Decision […] is limited to disposable electronic cigarettes of this type,” the note clarifies.
According to Euractiv, France, Germany, and Ireland are working on similar legislation.