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EUOBSERVER /
BRUSSELS
- Brussels has launched a pan-European anti-smoking campaign of 72
million euro. At the same time, the EU gives out about a billion
euro in subsidies for tobacco producers every year.
The second biggest EU anti-smoking campaign is targeted at young
people, as the average age of youngsters reaching for cigarettes has
fallen to thirteen in Europe, health commissioner Markos Kyprianou
told journalists on Tuesday (1 March).
Statistics show that around 650,000 EU citizens die in relation to
smoking annually, while EU member states pay about 100 billion euro
per year in tobacco-related health care costs.
Commissioner Kyprianou is openly in favour of anti-smoking
legislation, but is not planning to introduce any at the European
level.
Instead, he wants to encourage national governments to adopt similar
measures to
Italy
and Ireland, where smoking is banned in public places.
"I want to see a major shift in our society, where being smoke-free
becomes the norm and the smoke-addicted are a dwindling minority",
stated Mr Kyprianou, himself an ex-smoker.
The
campaign, dubbed "Help: for a Life without tobacco", includes
several instruments - a roadshow which kicked off in Belgium and is
set to move on to all the other member states, TV and cinema
adverts, and other media events across Europe.
Not exactly without
tobacco, for the moment
Anti-smoking campaigns conducted by the EU are financed through a
common tobacco fund, which takes 3 per cent of the amount spent on
grants for tobacco farmers.
The total in tobacco subsidies makes up around a billion euro per
year, and is likely to be gradually cut down as a result of reforms
to the EU Common Agricultural Policy.
According to Commissioner Kyprianou, there is a clear contradiction
in the EU's policies, but they cannot be changed from one day to
another.
"I don't think anybody wants to make their living out of harming
somebody's health, but we have to prepare some compensation and
phase-out measures for people working in this sector - because, they
are not the ones to pay for all this".
The first reform for tobacco industry is to come next year with
"de-coupling", gradually cutting the links between EU subsidies and
the amount of production by tobacco farmers.
Tobacco is grown in eight member states, with 75% of EU production
concentrated in
Greece
and Italy.
Over half of the total EU production (around 350,000 tonnes) of raw
tobacco is exported, while the EU imports over 500,000 tonnes - the
equivalent of 160% of its production.
Tobacco producers earn less than other farmers and they are highly
dependent on EU subsidies, which contribute up to about 76% of their
income from tobacco-growing, according to the European Commission. |
