Commission is split on smoking

BRUSSELS - The European Commission is threatened by a bitter internal split over growing demands for tougher EU measures to discourage…

BRUSSELS - The European Commission is threatened by a bitter internal split over growing demands for tougher EU measures to discourage smoking and to phase out the massive subsidies paid to European tobacco producers. The issue is expected to come to a head tomorrow in Brussels when the Commission will be called on to take drastic action to combat the 500,000 deaths caused each year in the EU from tobacco related illnesses.