Byrne wins tobacco advertising battle

Date: 05/12/02

By Karen Carstens

EU HEALTH ministers this week gave their seal of approval to Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner David Byrne's quest to ban tobacco advertising in much of the media.

But Germany and the UK, as well as the tobacco and publishing industries, were dismayed by the decision which they had lobbied hard against.

Byrne, speaking after the Council agreed to back his directive, said: 'This is another nail in the coffin of the tobacco industry.'

Dietmar Wolff, the German director of the Brussels-based European Newspaper Publishers Association, told European Voice: 'For a commissioner to say something like that is just totally inappropriate - this is very childish language.'

The German government, meanwhile, has threatened a repeat performance of two years ago, when it took a previous directive on an EU-wide tobacco advertising ban to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) - and won.

'I would be surprised if this didn't happen,' Wolff said, adding that if Berlin doesn't knock on the Court's door again, the tobacco industry surely will.

But according to the Commission, the new directive - put forward in May 2001 - 'takes full account' of the ECJ's October 2000 ruling.

The court annulled the previous directive, which imposed a near total ban on all forms of tobacco advertising and sponsorship, because it suggested that Brussels would have powers over health policy, a traditional bastion of the member states.

'The new proposal strictly adheres to the limits laid down by the Court,' the Commission said, as it is 'a more limited ban'.

It will cover the print media, radio and the internet.

Tobacco advertising on television was barred under the Television Without Frontiers Directive in 1989.

Certain areas remain unaffected, including posters, billboards, cinema and indirect advertising, such as cigarette logos on clothing.

But member states will have the option of imposing bans on these forms of advertising if they wish.

The directive is due to come into force by 31 July 2005 at the latest.

In addition, it bans tobacco sponsorship for events or activities with cross-border implications by the same date. This point was a major bone of contention for the UK.

Health Secretary Alan Milburn is understood to have fought hard for the deadline for a ban at sporting events, such as the Formula 1 Grand Prix, to be extended for a further year to fit in with domestic legislation.

The ruling Labour Party has close links with the motor racing industry: ahead of the 1997 election, it received a €1.5 million donation from Bernie Ecclestone, the boss of Formula 1, though it later returned the money.

The European Parliament has backed the new Commission proposal in its first reading.

'I'm glad that the Council did not succumb to the wealthy and fierce lobbyists,' Green MEP Heidi Hautula said after the health ministers followed suit.

'The decision means no time will be wasted in the struggle against tobacco, which kills half-a-million people in the EU every year.

'The Commission now has the mandate it urgently needs to represent the EU in the World Health Organization to achieve a world-wide ban on tobacco advertising,' she added.

Byrne echoed the sentiment: 'This is a double-blow against Big Tobacco the combined effect of the directive and the recommendation on tobacco prevention brings us very close to a complete ban on advertising of tobacco products.'

A related proposal also approved by the Council on Monday foresees measures to reduce the availability and supply of tobacco products to children and adolescents, including restricting access to tobacco vending machines and to tobacco internet sales.

Wolff said the ban runs roughshod over EU law. 'Throughout this whole process, no one has bothered to consult any lawyers,' he claimed.

The Commission, he said, has glossed over all the legal paradoxes in the proposal, and the Parliament failed to heed any advice from its legal affairs committee. Only 1-2% of all print media cross EU borders, he said.

'Never before have truckloads of newspapers or magazines been turned down at the border of any member state because they contained tobacco advertisements.'

Austria, Germany, Greece, Luxembourg, and Spain have more lax laws on tobacco advertising than other member states.

But, according to Wolff, the Commission has ignored existing legislation in place in and between member states - such as a bilateral agreement between France and Germany. Once the directive is examined by the ECJ, he added, 'the lawyers will finally be heard'.

German conservative MEP Hartmut Nassauer was also critical. 'Why don't we just ban advertisements for beer, sweets, even cars or skiing, because these things are all potentially dangerous to one's health.

'This is not what we (the Germans) understand under the subsidiarity principle,' he added.

EU health ministers have given their seal of approval to Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner David Byrne's quest to ban tobacco advertising in much of the media.