Almost one in ten cigarettes smoked in the European Union comes from the black market, and the annual loss to the budgets of the EU and its member states is estimated at around 13 billion euros. That is the conclusion of a new report by the European Court of Auditors. According to the data it cites, illegal cigarettes made up around 8.8 percent of total consumption in the Union in 2023.

What has changed is where they are made. Smuggling still exists, but illegal production is increasingly moving inside the Union itself, close to the buyers. In Belgium, in February 2025, a factory in Lommel was shut down that had been running 24 hours a day, with four lines each producing around a million cigarettes an hour. In September this year another one fell near Ninove - the twelfth in Belgium since the start of the year. In Spain, at the largest factory uncovered so far, around three million packs worth 15 million euros were seized and 20 people arrested.

"Criminals involved in the illicit tobacco trade succeed not because Europe lacks laws, but because there are still gaps in coordination, information sharing and enforcement," said Petri Sarvamaa of the European Court of Auditors.

Macedonia is on the map too

KPMG's study for 2025 shows that Macedonia has a lower share of illegal cigarettes than many European markets, but it is growing: around 3.6 percent of consumption, 1.3 percentage points more than in 2024. A more concrete picture comes from the Customs Administration's operation "Filter": seven cases of organised smuggling, around 70 million cigarettes illegally put on the market and more than six million euros in duties dodged.

The most uncomfortable detail of "Filter" is the list of those involved. Besides transport and import companies and private individuals, the case also covered police and customs officers. The European auditors are calling for better coordination between institutions. In Macedonia the question is more basic - coordinate with whom, exactly, when the smuggling involves people from the very institutions that are supposed to stop it?