Landlords protest

EU wants to ban smoking in pub gardens

The European Commission wants to reduce smoking.

(Bild: APA/Helmut Fohringer)

After the ban on smoking in indoor areas, smokers are facing the next annoyance: on Thursday, health ministers will discuss a "recommendation" from the EU Commission that smoking should be banned from pub gardens. Restaurateurs are protesting and see their existence threatened.

Around one in five Austrians smokes. However, the EU Commission wants to drastically reduce this proportion to below five percent in all member states. This is to be achieved with stricter rules. This time too, the EU is targeting the catering industry. A "Commission Recommendation" states that citizens should also be protected from passive smoking in outdoor areas.

The Commission cites not only bus stations, amusement parks and outdoor swimming pools as examples, but also outdoor areas of restaurants, bars and cafés.

The Commission's proposal speaks of "effective protection against passive smoking", including in "outdoor areas of service establishments", including restaurants, bars and cafés.

(Bild: Krone KREATIV/zVg)

The paper, which the health ministers will discuss on Thursday, is only a recommendation. However, it is clear that sooner or later it will become concrete guidelines and regulations. A look at the past also shows this: a recommendation was adopted back in 2009 and many of these points (for example, a ban on smoking in cabs and coaches or in open spaces in schools) have since been implemented.

Landlords see a threat to their existence
However, publicans are now protesting against these plans. Restaurant spokesman Mario Pulker rumbles in an interview with "Krone": "Something like this would be ruinous for our businesses and would result in a massive loss of turnover. The EU must not use its ink castles to increasingly restrict the personal freedom of citizens."

Such a ban would be ruinous for our businesses. The EU must not use its ink castles to increasingly restrict the freedom of its citizens.

Gastronomie-Obmann Mario Pulker

Bild: Zwefo

Groups with a large number of nicotine addicts could just stay at home. Pulker expects 30 to 60 percent less business in individual cases, which would threaten the existence of the business.

Pulker admits that landlords expressed similar fears at the time of the ban in indoor areas, "but in the end, over 50 percent of restaurateurs were in favor of it".

"People then stand next to it on the street"
This time, the European tourism and gastronomy association has already spoken out critically. In a letter, they questioned whether the ban on smoking in restaurants would actually help to achieve the health targets. Smoking would move elsewhere.

Viennese restaurateur and lobbyist Peter Dobcak also emphasizes this: "People will then stand next to the pub garden on the street and disturb pedestrians. Who would benefit from that?"

Dobcak would rather see non-smoking areas outside where families can eat without having to inhale second-hand smoke. Pulker emphasizes that some restaurateurs already prohibit smoking under awnings, for example, even though it would be permitted by law.

The planned change is also causing a shake of the head among tobacconists. Wolfgang Streissnig, chairman of the tobacconists' association, says: "There has to be an end to bureaucracy."

However, not all of the content of the Commission's paper is met with incomprehension by landlords. The paper also talks about reducing smoking in areas where many children are present (for example in front of kindergartens, in playgrounds, in zoos). Pulker: "For once, the EU should exhaust all these areas and do more in terms of prevention. But since it is failing in these cases, it is now coming up with such bans."

Still waiting: Health Minister Johannes Rauch

(Bild: APA/EVA MANHART)

Rauch wants to determine his position first
Social Affairs and Health Minister Johannes Rauch said in a statement that Austria's position will only be finalized after the talks on Thursday. In principle, EU-wide recommendations on smoke-free environments are welcomed.

The next important step would be the regulation of new nicotine pouches and similar alternative products.

State Secretary for Tourism Susanne Kraus-Winkler wants to have the effects on businesses "examined for feasibility and reasonableness". It is to be feared that a general smoking ban on restaurant terraces will only lead to smoking being displaced to neighboring residential areas.