The cost of getting nicotine regulation wrong

The cost of getting nicotine regulation wrong

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Charlie Weimers is a Member of the European Parliament for Sweden and Vice-Chair of the European Conservatives and Reformists. We spoke to him at WNC about Sweden's path to becoming smoke-free and what the rest of Europe is missing. His answers appear below in his own words.

Sweden is about to become smoke-free. Why does that matter?

"Sweden is about to become officially smoke-free, and that is fantastic news. The whole world should pay attention, but they ignore it because the truth is rather inconvenient for those who want to eradicate nicotine use entirely. Now, the use of nicotine is about the same as it used to be 25, 30 years ago. The difference is that people have chosen other products. Nicotine pouches, snus."

And if policymakers keep looking away?

"The European politicians, many of them, they just don't want to hear that. And the consequences will be real when they ban this and other parts of Europe are taxed to death. It will be the loss of lives and it will be on their conscience."

Hear more voices like this at WNC Berlin, 2 to 4 March 2027.
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Charlie Weimers (b. 1982) is a Member of the European Parliament for the Sweden Democrats (SD) since 2019. He serves as Vice-Chair of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE), Vice-Chair of the ECR Group, and leader of the Sweden Democrats delegation in the European Parliament.

His main fields of political activity and expertise include sovereignty, migration policy, internal security, freedom of expression, and evidence-based policymaking. He has consistently advocated pragmatic, results-oriented approaches to complex societal challenges, with a particular emphasis on harm reduction in public health, protection of fundamental rights against overreach, and EU reform.

Before his election to the European Parliament, Weimers worked as chief of staff and political adviser to a Member of the European Parliament. He previously served as national chairman of the Christian Democratic Youth Union (KDU) from 2008 to 2011 and as Vice-Chair of the Youth of the European People’s Party (YEPP) from 2007 to 2009. Between 2011 and 2014 he was a municipal commissioner (kommunalråd) in Hammarö while working as a political expert for the then Social Affairs Minister. From 2014 to 2018 he was chief of staff to an MEP in the European Parliament.