European Union health ministers agreed on Friday to ease tough planned restrictions on tobacco products to overcome opposition from some governments to the draft rules. The ministers rejected a ban on slim cigarettes proposed by the bloc's executive, the European Commission, but said they should be sold in normal-sized packets to reduce their appeal. They also agreed to outlaw menthol cigarettes and other tobacco flavourings.
The bloc's health commissioner said that, despite the need for compromise in order to reach an agreement, the spirit of the Commission's original proposals has been retained. "The main thrust is that tobacco should look like tobacco - not like perfume or candy - and that it should taste like tobacco as well," the Maltese commissioner Tonio Borg told a news conference in Luxembourg after the ministerial talks.
Cigarette sales in the 27-nation EU bloc have fallen sharply in recent years but - at about 33 percent - Europe still has a higher proportion of smokers than any other region of the globe, according to data from the World Health Organisation. The Commission proposed a crackdown on attractive tobacco branding in December, saying such branding was designed to recruit a new generation of younger smokers to replace the estimated 700,000 Europeans who die of smoking-related illnesses each year.
The discussions pitted western European nations that favour tough tobacco controls against a group of central and eastern member states led by Poland - one of Europe's top cigarette producers - who fear the impact on tobacco industry jobs. The Commission's proposal that graphic visual and written warnings should cover 75 percent of the surface of all cigarette packets in future - leaving just 25 percent or less for the brand - was weakened to 65 per cent by ministers on Friday.
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