Tag: Austria

Austria’s lower house of parliament voted yesterday to scrap an impending ban on smoking in bars and restaurants, according to a Reuters story.
The vote was a win for the coalition government and came despite opposition from health campaigners and opposition parties.
The ban, which is due to come into effect in May, would bring Austria more into line with fellow EU countries, many of which have stricter smoke-free legislation.
At present, large restaurants in Austria are required to provide separate smoking and non-smoking areas, but the rules are reportedly not rigidly implemented. Smaller restaurants need not have a separate area if the owner agrees to allow smoking on the premises.
More than half a million people in Austria have signed an official petition calling for the ban to go ahead, embarrassing the ruling coalition of conservatives and the far-right Freedom Party (FPO), which has championed both the freedom to smoke and direct democracy.
An FPO demand to have the ban scrapped was written into the coalition agreement struck three months ago.
Now that parliament has approved the bill, it has to be passed by the upper house and signed by the president. It is widely expected to pass in the upper house and to be signed into law.
In a statement, the organizers of the petition, the Vienna’s doctors’ association and the country’s main anti-cancer organization, called the vote a uniquely bad example.
The FPO says a smoking ban would be an unnecessary intrusion on individual liberty and an unfair imposition on bar and restaurant owners.
Opponents say public health is more important and point to the cancer risk posed by passive smoking.

Following a public outcry, the scrapping of a ban on tobacco smoking in Austria’s bars and restaurants will have to be debated in parliament, according to a dw.com story.
Austria is one of a few Western countries that allow smoking in bars and restaurants, but that liberal attitude was due to be snuffed out in May with the enactment of a ban imposed by the previous coalition government.
The ban was scrapped by the new government at the behest of the leader of the far-right Freedom Party, Austria’s vice chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache, himself a smoker, who said it impinged on “freedom of choice”.
Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, a non-smoker, had supported the ban when his center-right People’s Party was a member in the previous ruling coalition. But he was forced to change stance, bowing to pressure from his junior coalition partner, which insisted that the ban be dropped as a precondition for being part of the government.
The Austrian Medical Association (ÖÄK) launched a petition on Thursday to thwart the government’s plan, and the petition proved so popular that registration of signatures on the Interior Ministry website had to be stopped for two hours on Friday due to the heavy load placed on the ministry’s online servers.
The story said that more than 100,000 people had signed the petition, a number high enough to mean that the matter would have to be debated in parliament.
“This is a big vote and it has to make politicians rethink the issue,” said the ÖÄK’s president, Thomas Szekeres. “We will keep collecting signatures and expressions of support so as to keep increasing the pressure.”
In theory, large restaurants in Austria are required to provide separate smoking and non-smoking areas, but the rules are not rigidly implemented. Smaller restaurants need not have a separate area if the owner agrees to allow smoking on the premises.

The European smokers’ group Forest EU said yesterday it welcomed the scrapping of plans for a ban on smoking in Austria’s bars, restaurants and nightclubs.

The ban, a policy of the outgoing government, was due to come into effect in May 2018.

It was scrapped following talks between the Freedom Party and the People’s Party, which expect to form the next coalition government.

“This is defeat for smokers’ ostracization and a great victory for tolerance,” said Guillaume Périgois, director of Forest EU.

“Governments in Europe must review their smoking ban laws to accommodate smokers without inconveniencing those who don’t want to be exposed to tobacco smoke.

“Options should include separate, properly ventilated smoking rooms, as … is the case in many EU countries such as Austria. Regulations on outdoor smoking shelters should be relaxed so that people can smoke outside in a warm and comfortable environment all year round.”

Périgois called on the European hospitality industry to take a stand, defend its customers and call for the repeal of total indoor smoking bans in Ireland, the UK, Greece, Bulgaria, Malta, Spain and Hungary. It should call for the relaxation of national regulations so bars, restaurants and hotels could provide more sheltered outdoor smoking areas.

“Some countries that allow smoking rooms in bars, restaurants and nightclubs make them pointlessly punitive for smokers,” he said. “In Belgium for example, it is forbidden to have a television in smoking rooms. As if a TV could be bothered by tobacco smoke. This nonsense must end as soon as possible.”