Q1. Mr Commissioner,
our previous interview was more than a year ago (oct 15, 2005). Have
you seen progress in 2006 in tobacco control at the EU level?
Markos Kyprianou: There has been a considerable progress in tobacco control over the last year.
The European Court of Justice upheld the validity of the Tobacco Advertising Directive in its ruling of December 2006, which is of great importance for the further development of tobacco control in the EU. In addition, all Member States have now transposed the Directive into their national legislation.
This has been coupled with the continuation of the trend towards smoke-free environments. In March last year, Scotland adopted a comprehensive smoke-free legislation, with the rest of the UK to follow by this summer. Smoke-free legislation allowing for special sealed-off smoking rooms with separate ventilation systems, will come into force in France next year, and Estonia and Finland in June 2007. A number of other governments (including Spain, Lithuania and Belgium) have banned smoking in all indoor workplaces and public places with the exception of various types of hospitality venues.
Q2. Can you tell what the situation is concerning the introduction of illustrated health warnings? Last year you mentioned Belgium, UK, Latvia and Portugal...
Markos Kyprianou: Belgium is the first EU Member States to adopt pictorial warnings on tobacco products. These were introduced in November of last year – and, as from June, will feature on all cigarette packets sold in Belgium. The next country to follow suit will be Romania, where pictorials will become mandatory in July 2008.
Portugal and the United Kingdom have finalised public consultations on the issue Unpublished results from the UK consultation demonstrate a predominantly positive attitude of consumers towards the use of pictorials.
According to the information available to the Commission, a number of other Member States – including the Netherlands and Latvia – consider introducing the warnings in the near future.
Q3. What about the special expert committee set up under the Tobacco Products Directive? Did they address this issue? Could a survey similar to the one organized by the International Tobacco Control group about the effectiveness of cigarette warning labels (published in Tobacco Control of June 2006) take place in the EU?
Markos Kyprianou: Health warning labels are regularly discussed at the meetings of the Regulatory Committee set up under the Tobacco Products Directive. The last meeting of the Committee was held on 16 October 2006.
As for the effectiveness of the warnings, the current set of images was selected on the basis of market research carried out in 25 Member States, taking into account the cultural diversity of the European Union.
In addition, the effectiveness of the new text warnings - as set out by the Tobacco Products Directive - has been assessed in several Member States, including Belgium, Malta, the Netherlands and Poland (see the first Commission report on the implementation of the Directive of July 2005 -pdf format-).
Q4. The illustrated warnings, as suggested by the Commission do not systematically include the reference to a quitline telephone number or an internet address. You mentioned that the Tobacco Products Directive gives the member States this option. Could you confirm/clarify this point? Are member States allowed to request the printing on each pack of a quitline number and an internet address? In certain states this very useful information only appears on 1 in 14 image.
Markos Kyprianou: The Commission decision 2003/641/EC on the use of combined health warnings
envisages that the Member States may complement the warnings with quitline
telephone numbers, Internet addresses or other visual elements informing
about the support available to those who want to stop smoking. Such
references can indeed appear in all combined warnings.
Q5. We have taken the initiative to publish on line the illustrated warnings in a jpg format that is -we think- more userfriendly than the pdf. Would you consider posting the warnings on the Help websites so that visitors can see them?
Would you consider including the warnings in the EU media campaign or do you feel there is no need to inform the public about them?
Markos Kyprianou: There is certainly the need to inform the public about the pictorial
warnings and I would like to thank you for your valuable support in
promoting them throughout Europe.
On our website,
you can consult the EU library of warnings.
Q6. Do you think the exhibit organized in Brussels could travel in other cities in the EU to raise awareness about the issue?
Markos Kyprianou: The exhibition was an excellent and timely event and it would be
certainly a good idea to show it also in other EU cities.
Q7. Is there anything else you would like to add?
Markos Kyprianou: I strongly encourage all EU governments to make use of the pictorial warnings. Pictorial health warnings are effective tools for informing current and potential smokers about the dangers of smoking and alienating smoking within the society. Evidence from countries where pictorial warnings have already been introduced shows that images have a greater impact than text warnings alone.
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