Thursday 13 January 2011

Cyprus position on smoking ban bothers EU

According to a Cyprus local paper there is concern in Europe about the possibility that Cyprus could water down its smoking ban in response to reports that trade is suffering.

Compliance is strong, but resentment high, according to this report from last January. Nobody is blaming supermarket prices or recession for a 40 per cent drop in takings in the first few days of  2010.

In today's Cyprus Mail report, Police Spokesman Michael Katsounotos says: “ I have just received an email from the [EU] Health Ministry saying that an article in the Cyprus Mail has caused concern in the European Union that smoking laws in Cyprus were about to be changed after complaints from night club owners.”

There seems a high degree of awareness in Cyprus that national decisions about smoking bans matter to Brussels. Is this really what the European Union was meant to be about?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

They probably are concerned, but surely they are much more concerned about the Netherlands?

Frank Davis said...

It's this sort of thing which will destroy the EU.

Good thing too.