Euro-Parliament threatens UK tobacco advertising ban

12.00.00am GMT Tue 19th Nov 2002

A West Midlands Euro-MP and anti-tobacco advertising campaigner is fighting a proposed directive on tobacco advertising that would, left unamended, potentially threaten the recent ban on tobacco advertising in the UK.

Liberal Democrat MEP Liz Lynne is supporting an amendment tabled by Finnish MEP Heidi Hautala which explicitly states that EU countries will be free to adopt more stringent tobacco advertising bans than EU-wide legislation. Without this clause, the recent Tobacco Advertising Act, which was pushed through Westminster by Liberal Democrat MPs and Peers, may be open to legal challenge.

Liz Lynne said:

"The European Union has got into a mess over the issue of tobacco advertising and this new directive falls far short of UK legislation. This in itself would not be a problem if we had a cast iron guarantee that we were free to differ. Unfortunately, as it stands, the directive is highly ambiguous on the matter of advertising bans by individual countries. It also doesn't cover indirect advertising such as sponsoring sports events."

"Frankly, I am minded to vote against the directive as a whole even if Heidi's amendment does go through as it will be used as the basis of EU negiotiations on international treaties on tobacco marketing. It sends out a very mixed message.

"Regulation of tobacco advertising is a health consideration first, and commerce issue second. Under EU law, individual countries are free to impose restrictions on tobacco advertising if they deem that it is in the interests of their people's health. However, what we need to do is to avoid legal grey areas that tobacco companies will exploit by dragging the UK through the European Courts."