MEPs accused of flouting smoking ban

By Martin Banks

Date: 04/12/03

BOSSES at the European Parliament have been accused of failing to safeguard the health of their staff by not enforcing a smoking ban.

According to rules passed nearly ten years ago, the Parliament's buildings in Brussels, Strasbourg and Luxembourg are supposed to be smoke-free zones except for a few designated areas.

But many MEPs and other officials flout the ban, much to the chagrin of non-smokers.

Birgitte Holst, a Danish translator at the Parliament in Luxembourg, has now lodged a complaint with the European Ombudsman, Nikiforos Diamandouros, claiming Parliament's administrators are guilty of maladministration in failing to enforce the rules.

She said: "I was in despair after spending nine years of trying, in vain, to get the Parliament to do something about this.

"There are no-smoking signs all over the place but people just ignore them.

"I can't reach my office without having to dodge cigarette smoke."

Holst said many MEPs felt they were "above the law", adding: "The Ombudsman has said he will look into whether this amounts to maladministration."

In a separate move, a petition has been submitted to Luxembourg Socialist deputy Jacques Poos, quaestor for health and safety issues, seeking his support for a total ban on smoking throughout the Parliament.

Jan-Paul Brouwer, assistant to Dutch MEP Michiel van Hulten, organized the petition.

Parliament's spokesman David Harley said: "We try to strictly apply the existing no-smoking regulations but, unfortunately, there is a small minority who choose to ignore them."

The European Ombudsman is to investigate a complaint that many MEPs and other officials flout a smoking ban in the European Parliament's buildings in Brussels, Strasbourg and Luxembourg.