According to German newspaper Die Welt the European Commission is planning a campaign to target “harmful alcohol consumption”. This will see photographs of the harmful effects of drinking put on bottles of wine, beer and spirits as is already widely done for cigarettes.

In a bid to discourage smoking many countries require cigarettes to be sold in packets which depict the harmful consequences of smoking, such as lung disease and cancer.

Die Welt also reports the EU Commission aims to cut the proportion of smokers across the bloc from 25 percent to five percent by 2040.

To achieve this an aggressive scheme of tax rises on cigarettes are being considered.

Writing in Die Welt German journalist Jacques Schuster fiercely condemned the EU’s plans.

He argued: “Every day the European Commission issues an average of eight new regulations and orders – month after month, year after year, decade after decade.

“The well known constitutional lawyer Josef Isensee brought this frightening number to light in 2018. Unfortunately without consequences.

“Brussels’ mania for harmonisation is unbroken, the desire to intervene like an octopus with all the tentacles of the bureaucracy in the lives of the citizens – no matter what the cost.

“The fact that the EU Commission is not responsible for the health policies of the member states is just as unimportant to them as the ongoing incapacitation of people and the disregard for their freedom.”

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Britain has vaccinated 19.2 people per 100 so far, versus just 3.9 for the EU.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has admitted “we’re still not where we want to be”.

Last week speaking to German paper Süddeutsche Zeitung about the UK’s vaccine lead over the EU she said: “A country on its own can be a speedboat, the EU is more like a tanker.”

However she argued securing vaccines at an EU level was “the right thing to do” and suggested the EU could have collapsed if each member state was left to its own devices.

Ms von der Leyen stated: “I can’t even imagine if a few big players had rushed to it and the others went empty-handed.

“In economic terms it would have been nonsense and it would have been I think the end of our community.”

Meanwhile Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove has demanded a “reset” on trade between Northern Ireland and Great Britain.

Under the deal negotiated by Boris Johnson Northern Ireland remains tied to the European single market to avoid a border with the Republic of Ireland.

However in response there are now checks on some goods travelling between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.

This has infuriated unionists with Northern Irish first minister Arlene Foster calling for the protocol to be scrapped.

Additional reporting Monika Pallenberg