Background:
JATC2-WP5 is somewhat the legacy of the previous Joint Action on Tobacco Control (2017–2020). It focuses on tobacco and related products from the point of view of their characteristics as reported into the manufacturers’ notifications through EU-CEG, the EU Common Entry Gate, or analyzed by independent laboratories. In this work package, by acting as a focal point between end users and European Commission, WP5 partners aim at strengthening cooperation, providing relevant tools and sustainable support to Member States (MS) Competent Authorities (CA) to use EU-CEG data and product analyses for effective enforcement of the regulation.

Objective:
Specific objectives of WP5 include: 5.1 To support MSCA in EU-CEG data handling and propose improvements to enhance user experience; 5.2 To assess tobacco and related products information as submitted via EU-CEG; and 5.3 To facilitate increased technical, analytical and laboratory capacities to support, in particular, compliance enforcement and assessment.

Methods:
Starting from the needs of MSCA regarding EU-CEG data handling, WP5 partners are developing a set of procedures and a dashboard tool, based on open-source software, to integrate raw EU-CEG XML data into a workable database for further processing: quality and compliance assessment, curation, mapping with external sources, analyses and visualizations. This WP5 will also build a merged European dataset with shared EU-CEG data for a crosscountry analysis. Regarding laboratory activities, developing a common standard operating procedure (SOP) for untargeted analysis of e-liquids is a concrete opportunity to strengthen the collaboration between the members of this network.

Results:
Nine months since the start of this 3 years’ project, the first building blocks of the program have been set. All the end users from MSCA and laboratories are identified and have been informed about the goals and their involvement. They have access to a secure and sustainable Extranet platform (EU CircaBC) to download resources such as, tools, procedures, user guides or get support through a helpdesk forum. Listening to their needs, establishing the legal and technical framework for data sharing, providing ready-to-publish EU-CEG data files and showing how to deal with thousands of XML product submissions are the first outcomes achieved by the WP5 partners for the benefit of MSCA.

Conclusions:
By the end of the JATC2 project, and thanks to the tools and the work provided by WP5 partners, all MSCA, whatever their initial experience about EU-CEG data or their current access to laboratory resources, will reach a minimum standard of skills and a better knowledge on the tobacco and related products placed on their market.