| Series Title | European Voice |
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| Series Details | Vol.10, No.5, 12.2.04 |
| Publication Date | 12/02/2004 |
| Content Type | News |
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Date: 12/02/04 THE European Parliament is guilty of maladministration in failing to enforce its own smoking restrictions in the assembly's buildings, Ombudsman Nikiforos Diamandouros has ruled. The EU watchdog upheld a complaint from Birgitte Holst, a Danish translator at the Parliament's site in Luxembourg. She complained that the assembly's leaders had failed to enforce rules, passed nearly ten years ago, which ban smoking in all but a few designated areas of its buildings in Brussels, Strasbourg and Luxembourg. Despite the ruling, many MEPs and other officials flout the ban, much to the chagrin of non-smokers. In his ruling, Strasbourg-based Diamandouros said that senior officials at the Parliament had argued they had taken all necessary measures to ensure the rules are applied. "Many "no-smoking" signs are posted in the no-smoking areas and smoke extraction systems have been established in areas reserved for smokers," he said. "However, some people do not feel bound by the rules and break them, regardless of the efforts made by the administration." But he concluded that the Parliament had "not yet succeeded in promoting effective compliance" and that this constituted "an instance of maladministration". The ruling was welcomed by Holst and anti-smoking campaigner Jan-Paul Brouwer, assistant to Dutch Socialist MEP Michiel van Hulten. Brouwer, who gathered a 450-signature petition calling on the Parliament to enforce its smoking restrictions, said: "This could be the breakthrough we have been waiting for. "Parliament, as an employer, has an obligation to take adequate measures to promote compliance with its own internal non-smoking rules, but for many years it has failed to do so. "We now hope that the Parliament will be shamed into action and finally turn this maladministration into sound administrative behaviour by calling for a total ban on smoking throughout Parliament's buildings in all its working places. "The Parliament should follow the example set by the European Commission to ban smoking throughout its buildings from 1 May," he added. The European Ombudsman has criticised the European Parliament for failing to control smoking in its buildings. This follows a complaint from an official working in the Parliament. |
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| Source Link | http://www.european-voice.com/ |
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| Subject Categories | Business and Industry, Health, Politics and International Relations |
