The Ministry of Health has prepared a new Law on Restriction of the Use of Tobacco Products and will insist on its application, since the previous implementation of the 2004 Law did not give the expected results, said the Ministry today, marking World No Tobacco Day, May 31.
“This law prescribes a fine for failure to comply with the prescribed prohibitions and restrictions as follows: EUR 500 – 20K for legal entities, 50 – 2K for responsible individuals in legal entities and 150 – 6K for entrepreneurs. Tobacco lovers who smoke in the public and in their work area, exposing others to secondary smoke, will also have to pay a pretty penny for this indulgence – 30 to one thousand euros. You also cannot smoke in rented accommodation – except in the designated rooms visibly marked by the owner.
The law also prescribes a ban on smoking in all health and educational institutions, as well as in their courtyards, catering facilities and other facilities where public gathering of citizens is carried out.
Tobacco products can be enjoyed by workers, the Ministry added, at the premises specified, equipped and marked by the employer.
The new law also prescribes that tobacco products whose packaging does not include a health (both text and photo) warning covering 65 percent of the front and rear outer surface of a single package of tobacco product be also banned from the market.
The draft law was sent to the European Commission at the end of last year, for opinion and assessment of compliance with the relevant European Union Directive.
