EFA, the Progressive Reinforcement of Organizations and Individuals (PROI) and other public health and tobacco control organisations across Europe, we have sent a letter to the World Bank to express our concern about their participation at a regional gathering sponsored by the tobacco industry.
The meeting, "Regional Financial Stability in the New Global Environment", that took place on June 16-17, 2017, was unfortunately used to lobby against effective public health policy and cost-effective tobacco control measures was sponsored by Japan Tobacco International (JTI). As result, the World Bank officials who attended the event were quoted in the media talking about "negative effects" of tobacco taxation in Western Balkans and "need to slow down the increasing excise duties on tobacco in Bosnia". This is highly regrettable and undermining their good work.
The World Bank Group is part of the United Nations system and has demonstrated a long term commitment to tobacco control, as well as an unambiguous global policy on tobacco since the 1990s.