Bonino’s burning issue

Date: 23/01/1997

There may be no smoke without fire, but there is certainly no smoke without Bonino. And that is troubling more politically correct health-conscious Commission officials who are having to conduct all dealings with the Consumer and Fisheries Commissioner through an eye-watering haze.

Time was that all top-level talks took place in smoke-filled rooms. Now, of course, it is the exception rather than the rule, but nobody has been brave enough to read the rules to the fiery Emma.

The latest chain-smoking event to raise eyebrows was a gathering in her office of ECHO humanitarian aid officials, as the Commissioner, who has been monitored by doctors after fainting during last month's marathon fishing talks, puffed her way through the meeting.

Such is the awe in which she is held that no one had the nerve to produce the in-house rule book which states: “In the event of conflict in areas not specifically designated as smoking areas, the right of non-smokers to a healthy environment takes precedence over the right of smokers to smoke.”