Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-10-23-Speech-2-370"
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".
Mr President, the timing of the Commission Green Paper and the report by Mr Florenz is excellent. It is really high time the European Union returned to the issue of tobacco, as silence has surrounded the subject for too long.
The Florenz report rightly focuses on smoking among young people and the harmful effects of passive smoking in workplaces, public buildings and catering and drinking establishments. On the subject of young people, research has shown that 90% of smokers start smoking as children, as under 18s. I am very pleased with the ambitious objectives of the Florenz report to significantly reduce smoking among this age group. After all, young people are susceptible to peer pressure and, in addition, the harmful effects on health are greater in this group.
It is my hope, therefore, that the Member States – who think, of course, that they themselves can do everything best and that we must on no account become too involved – will respond to this House’s appeal to commit themselves to halving the harmful effects of smoking among young people by 2025, so that they actually take action by agreeing with each other to do so.
With regard to passive smoking and the general smoking ban, a sound liberal principle is that one’s personal freedom ends where another’s begins – and what clearer illustration of this principle can there be than unwilling passive smoking? Passive smoking inflicts great harm on public health and entails costs for the European economy. Each year more than 79 000 adults die in the EU Member States as a result of passive smoking, and there is proof that passive smoking in the workplace accounted for 7 000 deaths in the European Union in 2002, whilst exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke at home was responsible for a further 72 000 deaths.
Of course, ample experience of this kind of smoking ban has been gained already in countries such as Ireland, Scotland and Italy, and this experience is actually all positive. The comments from these countries – including from people who had been very sceptical about this kind of measure – are ultimately positive. Thus, it is tempting to issue a smoking ban at European level, too.
Recently, in the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, this House decided against imposing a European smoking ban at this time, instead opting to leave such measures to Member States. I think this is the right decision, as such a controversial decision should be taken as closely as possible to the citizen for the time being – that is, at Member State or regional level. Therefore, the call on the part of those Member States who already have a smoking ban for the voluntary signing of a European charter in order to bring greater clarity for consumers strikes me as the most that can be achieved at present.
What is extremely good – and in this respect I commend the Commissioner on his Green Paper – is the promotion of this discussion that has indisputably taken place. The issue is on the agenda in all Member States.
Mr President, I should like to make some concluding remarks about the Directive on tobacco products. The Florenz report also looks towards the revision of this Directive. I support everything the report says about picture warnings on cigarette packets. It is tragic that so few Member States have made use of these, and personally I would be in favour of legislating in this regard. Moreover, it should be possible to use these warnings in other ways, too, for example on the kind of information leaflets on how to stop smoking that they have in Canada; the experience with this has been positive, and it also strikes me as an excellent idea."@en1
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