EU May Ban Smoking in Restaurants, Bars

A top European official said the EU Commission is considering a ban on smoking in bars and restaurants.

“It’s a question of whether or not we want to institute smoke free workplaces and that would include jobs in bars and restaurants,” David Byrne, the EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection, told Germany’s Die Welt newspaper on Thursday.

The Brussels-based commission is currently considering whether to mandate the smoking ban Europe-wide, or give each state the freedom to decide whether, and to what extent, to ban smoking in public.

Photos of disease

Currently in its effort to reduce smoking in the EU, the commission is compiling a databank with photographs of smoking-related illnesses aimed at frightening potential smokers away from tobacco. EU countries could then mandate the use of these photos in addition to the written warning labels that have been required on European cigarette packages since the end of January.

The member states would then decide if they want to use the photos,” Byrne told the newspaper.

The EU has accused Germany of taking too soft a stance on smoking in public. Commissioner Byrne has criticized the government for taking an "easygoing" stance to smoking, considering that an estimated 100,000 Germans die of smoking-related diseases every year.

Moreover, the EU Commission, which launched an anti-smoking campaign last year called "Feel Free to Say No," has accused Berlin of trying to block a comprehensive world-wide anti-smoking initiative by the World Health Organization, which is already supported by over 190 countries. In the past years, Germany has also come out strongly against an EU initiative to ban cigarette advertising across Europe.

Germans keep on smoking

Next to Spain and Greece, Germany has the highest rate of smokers in Europe. Statistics collected by the federal health ministry also show that while smoking is on the decline in the rest of Europe, Germany’s number of smokers has remained relatively constant. Even more alarming, the starting age for first-time smokers is dropping. As of 2003, every third ninth grader smoked.

Across the rest of Europe, however, enjoying a cigarette is becoming increasingly difficult as governments consider implementing anti-smoking legislation. In the Netherlands, a strict series of smoking laws went into effect on Jan. 1, 2004, making it virtually impossible for workers to take cigarette breaks. Under the law, smoking is banned in areas such as stairs, hallways, conference rooms, cafeterias and toilets.

Sweden has already passed a tough anti-smoking law that will go into effect in 2005, and Ireland is also on the verge of passing a ban similar to the one in the Netherlands. Great Britain is deliberating a crackdown on smoking in public spaces, but after a heated round of debate from the country’s pub owners, the government has decided to postpone any decision until later in 2004.