Tobacco control

Over 150 million smuggled cigarettes, worth 71 million lei (Rs 15 million euros), were seized by the Romanian authorities in 2019, the equivalent of a 40 pct increase compared to the previous year, shows data centralized by the Stop Smuggling portal, quoted by the British American Tobacco (BAT) in a press release, sent to AGERPRES on Friday.

The National Transparency Authority shot down attempts to open "smokers clubs" across Greece, saying the law is clear about the universal ban of smoking and warning of repercussions if they flout it.

Three in four businesses in Greece have fallen into line with the decade-old smoking ban since the government made its enforcement in all indoor public spaces one of its top priorities and imposed stricter fines for violations.

One day after Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis officially launched the Health Ministry's national action plan against smoking, inspectors and police officers imposed the first fines on a cafe owner and his customer in central Greece for flouting the ban.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis officially launched the Health Ministry's national action plan against smoking on Tuesday, hailing it as a "bold initiative for protecting public health" that would "modernize and refine public life."

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis hailed the Health Ministry's National Action Plan Against Smoking as a "bold initiative for protecting public health," at its presentation in Athens on Tuesday.

Ahead of Tuesday's scheduled launch of a new action plan to crack down on smoking in public places, a joint ministerial decision has stipulated the new range of stiffer penalties that transgressors are to face.

The conservative government's plan to strictly crack down on establishments and individuals violating a ban on smoking in public places is proceeding rapidly, with inspectors to be equipped with fine books in due course. 

Smokers in Austria will no longer be able to smoke a cigarette while drinking coffee at local restaurants, bars or cafes. As of 01.11.2019, the smoking is banned under a law passed in the summer, world agencies have reported.

The cigarette black market in Romania fell in September below 11pct of the total consumption, for the first time in the last ten years, due to the sharp reduction in "no-name" products, show the findings of the Novel research, made public on Thursday. At the national level, the illegal trade in cigarettes thus reached 10.5pct, down 3.2 percentage points compared to July this year.