Companies which sell e cigarettes are deeply upset about the proposed update to the European tobacco products directive, claiming their products are recreational and should continue to be classed as such.

“We are not selling a medicinal product, we don&#39 t present e cigarettes as having health benefits and they are not functionally a medicine. They are designed as an alternative to cigarettes “, said Charles Hamshaw Thomas, director of legal and corporate affairs at E Lites.

Forcing companies to either reclassify their products as medicinal or lose the right to sell them commercially would seriously harm their ability to compete across Europe.

“Limitations on the wider availability of e cigarettes will give cigarette companies an unfair advantage and perversely protect their existing markets,” Hamshaw Thomas said.

The new rule is one of several proposed updates to the European tobacco products directive which, according to the EU, seeks to make smoking in all forms less attractive to young people in order to discourage tobacco initiation and improve public health in member states.

European union seeks ban on ‘too realistic’ e-cigarettes

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All electronic cigarettes currently on sale in Britain would be banned and removed from shelves under new European Union proposals. A confidential negotiating document drafted by the European Commission seeks to overturn a vote by MEPs that rejected outlawing them in their present form.

Brussels officials fear that there is a “risk that electronic cigarettes can develop into a gateway to normal cigarettes”, according to the paper. It wants to include the smoke free alternative under a new EU “tobacco products directive” despite the fact they contain no tobacco.

The attempt to ban e cigarettes drew anger from suppliers in Britain, where 1.3 million have switched to the devices. Fraser Cropper, the chief executive officer of Totally Wicked, an e cigarette supplier based in Lancashire, said “Behind closed doors in Brussels, unaccountable and unelected bureaucrats are drafting proposals that will deny millions of existing and former smokers access to a safer alternative to tobacco cigarettes.”

A town in northern France has become the first to impose a ban on electronic cigarettes in public buildings. Francois Digard, the mayor of Saint Lo in the La Manche region of Normandy, passed a decree this month outlawing them. France, which has an estimated 1.5 million e cigarette users, is mulling a ban but the mayor apparently decided to jump the gun after several non smokers said they were unhappy about the devices being smoked in public libraries.

“The e cigarette is not neutral in the immediate environment. With it emitting odour and a bit of smoke it can really bother some people,” Mr Digard told France Bleu Cotentin radio.

As cigarette smoking has been increasingly stigmatised, the sale of electronic cigarettes has risen dramatically. E cigarettes consist of a battery, a cartridge containing nicotine, a solution of propylene glycol or glycerine mixed with water, and an atomiser to turn the solution into a vapour.

The nicotine is delivered without a flame and without tobacco or tar and e cigarette users describe the experience as “vaping” rather than smoking.

They are widely considered a healthier alternative, however, the Dutch public health institute on Wednesday published a policy paper claiming that electronic cigarettes are as harmful as ordinary cigarettes, saying that they are addictive and contain poisonous substances.

Because the products are new and do not contain tobacco, they are outside EU law and are more or less unregulated in Britain and across Europe.

The officials in Brussels want that to change, saying the devices “normalise the action of smoking”. “Electronic cigarettes are a tobacco related product and should be regulated within this directive. They simulate smoking behaviour and are increasingly used and marketed to young people and non smokers,” said the commission negotiating paper.

The proposals would ban, by 2017, e cigarettes that produce levels of nicotine above 20mg per ml, those with refillable cartridges or those that taste like tobacco. Suppliers say all e cigarettes currently available would fall foul of the rules.

Martin Callanan, a Conservative MEP, said “Forcing e cigarettes off the shelves would be crazy. It would remove a valuable support for people desperate to stop smoking and thus could potentially lead to needless deaths.” A commission spokesman said “I never comment on leaked documents.”