A ground-breaking decision on smoking has been taken at the European Parliament - one that is likely to enrage and frustrate both smokers and non-smokers, writes Mark Rodden.
As we in Ireland can attest, Europe has made great progress in this area in recent years. Ireland led the way when it banned smoking in all enclosed public places in March 2004, and since then Italy, Scotland and Sweden have followed suit. Estonia, Finland and the UK will do likewise this year. Just this month France introduced a ban on smoking in public spaces with a view to extending it to bars and restaurants by 2008.
Indeed, last month the European Commissioner for Health, Markos Kyprianou, suggested that EU-wide legislation should be introduced to turn Europe into a smoke-free zone by 2009. The commission says about one third of the near half-billion population in the EU smoke and that passive smoking kills about 79,000 Europeans every year.
It is only when you travel abroad that you wonder how we non-smokers managed at all. I was reminded of the bad old days during a train journey from Frankfurt airport to the parliament in Strasbourg. After settling down to read a paper, I noticed that the air smelt a good deal more pungent than usual. It was only when a grey cloud of smoke enveloped me that I realised I had made the cardinal error of taking a seat in a German smoking carriage.
It was in Strasbourg, where the parliament was holding a plenary session last week, that an intriguing vote amending its approach to smoking took place. The result means that, far from following the lead in Europe, the parliament has instead voted to buck the trend by reintroducing smoking within its confines.
So while the rest of Strasbourg's smoking workers were coming to terms with the anti-smoking laws introduced in France on February 1st, hundreds of people were lighting up in the parliament following the reversal of the ban. The decision may be controversial, but judging by the smoky cloud that greeted visitors to the press bar last week, it has been gratefully accepted by some of the parliament's staff, as well as many visiting journalists.
The background to this hazy tale dates back to October 2004, when a decision was taken to phase out smoking in the parliament by January 2007. It was made by the bureau of the parliament, which is the body that deals with its internal organisation. It consists of the president of the parliament, 14 vice-presidents, who are elected by MEPs, and six non-voting questors who advise the bureau.
The bureau decided on a total ban inside parliament from January this year, with separate, ventilated smoking areas and "non-intrusive" smoking in individual offices in the meantime. In November 2006, a motion to relax the proposed change lost by a vote, with the politicians on the bureau instead deciding to press ahead with the ban in the New Year. In the end, that ban lasted little over a month.
Members of the bureau are elected every two-and-a-half years, which meant that in January this year half the members were new. The smoking ban was soon brought back on the table and on February 12th the bureau voted by 12 to one to review its plan to make the parliament a smoke-free zone.
The rules have now been amended to allow smoking in "specially designated enclosed smoking areas". These areas must meet "strict criteria", be "completely enclosed and isolated from non-smoking areas" and have ventilation systems to stop smoke drifting into non-smoking areas.
While Belgium and Luxembourg, where the parliament is also based, have joined France in restricting smoking in public buildings, the parliament only has to follow these rules if it does not interfere with the "smooth running" of parliamentary and administrative business. The bureau believes this option will make smoking rules "easier to enforce", something that was reportedly one of the problems when the outright ban was introduced.
Sadly for an institution that has done much to help tackle the ill-effects of smoking, the ruling will not do much for the reputation of the European Union. Certainly the sight of some MEPs sitting in the bar puffing away at cigarettes over coffee will reinforce the image of the parliament as being a glorified talking-shop. Nor will those members happily smoking cigars negate that other inaccurate cliché that the parliament is nothing but a retirement home for politicians.
The EU has often been accused of suffering from a "democratic deficit", and this ruling does not dilute that charge either. More than 80 per cent of respondents to an EU-wide survey last year said they favoured a ban in all public indoor spaces. Another survey by the parliament's newsletter found that about 75 per cent of EU staff favoured an outright ban in its buildings.
How much the development of additional self-contained smoking areas will cost, and whether this change will stick in the face of opposition from anti-smoking MEPs, are questions for another day. But for now smokers can rest easy in the knowledge that the parliament is one of Europe's last strongholds of indoor smoking.