Countries back Brussels’ plan to ban outdoor vaping

Europe’s capitals have supported Brussels’ plan to extend smoking bans for cigarettes and vapes to outdoor areas — days after members of the European Parliament opposed it.

Only two countries — Germany and Greece — abstained during a vote on the measure during a meeting of health ministers in Brussels on Tuesday. Other countries expressed their dissatisfaction with the plan, before nonetheless passing it.

The move, which is nonbinding, encourages national governments to prohibit vaping and smoking in outdoor areas such as transport hubs, bar and café terraces, beaches and playgrounds.

And while there was significant opposition to the plan among lawmakers last week in Europe’s now more polarized Parliament, the capitals were able to largely align with Brussels’ intention.

To some who opposed it in the Parliament, the capitals’ vote is merely symbolic.

“I regret the voting outcome in the Health Council regarding the smoke-free environment topic,” said German lawmaker and doctor Peter Liese, “but I also believe it is a Pyrrhic victory for the opponents of e-cigarettes.” Liese, the health spokesperson for the European People’s Party, argues that vapes and cigarettes should not be treated equally, and that vapes can help smokers to quit.

In the Parliament, left-leaning MEPs had argued that a watered-down compromise steered by the center-right EPP and the European Conservatives and Reformists was too weak on vapes, while right-wing parliamentarians said that the European Union shouldn’t be legislating in this area.

Unlikely defense

Some national media reports on the move led to an unlikely defender of the EU process in Tuesday’s health ministers’ meeting — Hungary.

Its Health Minister Péter Takács, who chaired the meeting while Hungary holds the Council of the EU’s rotating presidency, said: “In many member states’ press we see some misunderstandings. This is a Council recommendation which means that there is no binding effect for member states.”

Countries can “pick and choose” if they want to implement the recommendation, he said, adding: “There is no obligatory ban,” in this instance — unlike binding tobacco legislation which the European Commission is supposed to be introducing during this new mandate. 

Hungary’s Olivér Várhelyi, also toed the Commission’s line in his first ministers’ meeting as the EU’s health commissioner. He said the revision was needed “in order to better protect people in the EU from exposure to secondhand smoke and aerosols in indoor and specific outdoor spaces.”

“The World Health Organization clearly states that there is no safe or acceptable level of exposure to secondhand smoke,” he said. “Secondhand emissions from electronic cigarettes also put people nearby at risk, whether they contain nicotine or not.”

But that’s not the position in Germany.

Thomas Steffen, Germany’s state secretary at the Federal Ministry of Health, pointed to a decision made last week by the country’s Bundesrat, the legislative body representing its federal states.

It questioned the “scientific basis” for outdoor bans and that the Commission’s recommendation could “lead to a loss of sales in the catering industry and poses further challenges for businesses in enforcing the bans.” 

Greece’s Health Minister Spyridon-Adonis Georgiadis also abstained, saying the Commission should have done an impact assessment before putting forward the recommendation. He said that in Greece — which has the highest rates of smoking in Europe at 42 percent of those over 15 — the “climate and geographical location” would carry a “particular weight” in terms of implementing any new prohibitions.

Health ministers from Romania and Czechia called for more studies to demonstrate the risks of vapes — but they went on to back the recommendation.

Aligning national bans

Many of the countries supporting the plan have already introduced similar legislation nationally — and want to see the rest of Europe aligned.

France’s Health Minister Geneviève Darrieussecq said new measures being introduced in the coming weeks meant that vapes — which “lead to addictions and poor health” —  will no longer be sold in the country, and called for similar preventative action to be “reflected at European level.”

Slovenia has banned all flavored vapes — except for tobacco flavor — while the Netherlands has also outlawed certain flavors. But with neighboring countries still selling them, the Dutch Health Minister Fleur Agema said the country is still seeing illegal products on the market and therefore called for more EU action.

Belgium’s Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke said countries are currently playing “cat and mouse” with the tobacco industry, which is “flooding” EU markets with “ever so creative new tobacco, nicotine or smoking products, cleverly attracting and addicting young generations.”

While Estonia echoed calls for EU-wide restrictions, arguing that its own ban on flavored vapes is undermined by different legislation in neighboring countries.

With the nonbinding measures passed, many countries — including Finland, Latvia and Belgium — now want the Commission to move ahead with its revision of harder-hitting tobacco rules, which will include updated laws on taxation, as well as a refresh of its overarching tobacco framework.

But that means getting MEPs on side, which might not be so easy.