EPICENTER

EPICENTER, or the European Policy Information Center, was launched in 2014. It is a collective of European think tanks, which provides a “free-market perspective” in European policy debates on topics including public health.¹ Epicenter and its members are all listed as global partners of the Atlas Network.²

Background

Epicenter launched in October 2014 with 6 members:³

• Civismo, Spain
• Institut Economique Molinari (IEM), Belgium
• Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) in the UK (which received tobacco company funding, see section below)
• Instituto Bruno Leoni (IBL), Italy
• Lithuanian Free Market Institute (LMFI) (which received funding from Philip Morris International in 2017 to undertake “research and awareness activities, exploring the scope and drivers of illegal trade in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland.⁴) For more information, go to PMI IMPACT
• Timbro, Sweden

In 2017 two further organisations joined:

• Centre for Political Studies (CEPOS), Denmark
• Civil Development Forum (FOR Foundation), Poland.

In July 2018, a ninth member joined EPICENTER:⁵

• Centre for Liberal Studies (KEFiM), Greece

The President of KEFiM, Alexandros Skouras, previously worked for Atlas Network as Director of International Relations.⁶ Tom G. Palmer, a member of the KEFiM advisory board, is Executive Vice President for International Programs at Atlas Network, and a Senior Fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute.⁷
Koskos Leonidas, a Director of KEFiM, and former President of the Confederation of Greek Food Industries, was previously a board member of the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises (SEV) which represents the interests of tobacco companies in Greece, including Philip Morris⁸⁹ and British American Tobacco.¹⁰ CEV has argued against tobacco taxes, citing the risk of an increase in illicit trade and threats to jobs, both arguments commonly used by the tobacco industry.¹¹
Saravakos Constantinos, a Research Analyst at KEFiM, contributed to the 2019 ‘Nanny State Index’ (see below).¹²

Tobacco Industry links

Philip Morris International (PMI) declared on the 2017 EU Transparency Register that it was a member of Epicentre.¹³

Established and Funded by Institute of Economic Affairs

Image 1: EPICENTER Funding Disclosure 2016 Financial Year (source: Lobbyfacts.eu, accessed January 2018)

EPICENTER has been accused of being opaque about the origins of its funding.
Following repeated complaints by European watchdog Corporate Europe Observatory,¹⁴¹⁵ EPICENTER finally declared in January 2018 that it was entirely funded by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) (see Image 1).¹⁶¹⁷
The IEA is a right wing think tank partly-funded by tobacco companies. For more information about its relationship with the tobacco industry, also see:

• IEA: History of Close Ties with the Tobacco Industry
• IEA: Working with RJ Reynolds, BAT and Philip Morris on Environmental Risk
• Preventing the Government-Funded Charity Sector Lobbying Government

Key EPICENTER staff work, or have worked, for the IEA:

• Christina Stewart-Lockhart: Founder and Chief Executive of Epicentre, was Director of Programmes at the IEA until 2019.¹¹⁸
• Ralph Buckle, Acting Chief Executive of Epicenter in 2019 and Acting Director of Education, Outreach and Programmes at the IEA.¹⁸
• Adam Bartha: Director of Epicenter, listed on the IEA staff page.¹⁸
• Diego Zuluaga: Director of Epicenter and Head of Financial Services and Tech Policy at the IEA until 2018.¹⁹²⁰

Criticised EU Tobacco Control Measures

EPICENTER criticised the EU Tobacco Products Directive for “curbing innovation and variety” in e-cigarettes, and claimedthat the legislation would ” prove counterproductive” and was ” not backed by substantial evidence”.²¹

Innov8 Europe

EPICENTER organised Innov8, a conference held in Brussels in 2016 and 2017, which aimed to: “focus on a number of different aspects of innovation and will comprise of important discussions on how European policy should move forward.” ²²²³
The event held in November 2017 listed Christopher Snowdon as a speaker. ²⁴
The October 2016 event included a session on ‘Innovation in harm reduction‘ and speakers included:²⁵

• Sam Bowman, Executive Director of the Adam Smith Institute;
• Marc Michelsen, Senior Vice President Communications & Public Affairs at Fontem Ventures, a subsidiary of Imperial Tobacco
• Chris Snowdon, Head of Lifestyle Economics at the Institute of Economic Affairs;
• Gustav Blix, former Swedish Member of Parliament, Director of EPICENTER

The ‘Nanny State Index’

In March 2016, EPICENTER launched the so-called ‘Nanny State Index’, designed by Christopher Snowdon, to show “the worst places in the European Union to eat, drink, smoke and vape”.²⁶ The Nanny State Index appears to be a counter-initiative to the Tobacco Control Ranking Scale, an initiative first launched by the European Cancer Leagues in 2006, which monitors the implementation of tobacco control policies at country-level across Europe.²⁷
On 10 May 2017, EPICENTER presented the updated Nanny State Index at an event in Brussels, titled “The Best and Worst Countries to Eat, Smoke and Vape in the EU”. Speakers included:²⁸

• Ben Townsend, Vice President and Head of EU Affairs at Japan Tobacco International (JTI)
• Members of European Parliament: Daniel Dalton, Gunnar Hökmark
• Sinclair Davidson
• Frederik Roeder, Managing Director of the Consumer Choice Center (CCC)
• Christopher Snowdon

One event session description titled “The Unintended Consequences of Regulation” referred to “over-regulation of e-cigarettes” which “has been criticised for pushing smokers back to combustible cigarettes”.²⁸ It is not known whether any evidence for this claim was presented in the session.
The index is updated annually.²⁹³⁰

TobaccoTactics Resources

• Institute of Economic Affairs
• Atlas Network
• Consumer Choice Center
• Third Party Techniques

Relevant Link

• EPICENTER website