How to divide around one billion euros in cigarette money

The finance ministers of ten EU states are working on a share-out plan for money promised by Philip Morris last year in exchange for them dropping their lawsuits against the cigarette giant.

The Europeans, led by the Commission, had also accused RJ Reynolds and Japan Tobacco of supplying smuggling networks in Europe, which meant a great deal of lost taxes.

Brussels had also launched legal action against money-laundering.

To figure out who gets what, the finance ministers have to take into account sizes of seizures of illegally cigarettes which were destined to be sold illegally, where the goods were confiscated, and calculate the effect on national economic sectors and treasuries, and so on.

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