THE European Union is spending £700 million a year subsidising the growing of tobacco at the same time as its member nations are spending taxpayers' money on treating people with tobacco-related diseases, says one of Wiltshire's Euro-MPs.
The European Parliament voted last week on measures to maintain the link between tobacco production and subsidy payments after tobacco producers pressed the European Commission to keep the high level of support.
South West MEP Neil Parish is furious that the EU is spending money on producing something which has been proven to damage people's health.
He said: "We must stop using taxpayers' money to subsidise the growing of a crop and then more taxpayers' money to cure nearly 500,000 people suffering from smoking-related diseases."
According to Mr Parish, one third of tobacco grown is of such poor quality it is dumped on Third World countries, costing them jobs and distorting their trade. The rest is burned in heaps on the ground and never smoked at all.
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