Recommendation 2003/54 - Prevention of smoking and on initiatives to improve tobacco control - Main contents

official title

 

Legal instrument	Recommendation
Number legal act	Recommendation 2003/54
Original proposal	COM(2002)303
CELEX number i	32003H0054

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Council Recommendation of 2 December 2002 on the prevention of smoking and on initiatives to improve tobacco control

Official Journal L 022 , 25/01/2003 P. 0031 - 0034

Council Recommendation

of 2 December 2002

on the prevention of smoking and on initiatives to improve tobacco control

(2003/54/EC)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 152(4), second subparagraph thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission(1),

Whereas:

• (1) 

  Article 152 of the Treaty stipulates that Community action, which shall complement national policies, shall be directed towards improving public health, preventing human illness and diseases, and obviating sources of danger to human health.

• (2) 

  The resolution of the Council and the Ministers for Health of the Member States, meeting within the Council of 18 July 1989 on banning smoking in places open to the public(2), provided guidelines to the Member States for the protection of non-smokers from environmental tobacco smoke. Following a Report from the Commission on the response from the Member States to this initiative(3), the present recommendation reinforces such protection and identifies particularly vulnerable groups.

• (3) 

  The Council Resolution of 26 November 1996 on the reduction of smoking in the European Community(4) recognised the need for the development of an effective strategy on combating tobacco consumption, which includes certain of the elements contained in this recommendation.

• (4) 

  The Council Conclusions of 18 November 1999 on combating tobacco consumption(5) underlined the necessity for developing an overall strategy, which includes some of the measures outlined in the present recommendation for the protection of minors (rules for selling conditions, sales through electronic means and vending machines).

• (5) 

  The Council Resolution of 29 June 2000 on action on health determinants(6) took note of the results of the debates held at the European Conference on health determinants in the European Union held at Evora on 15 and 16 March 2000, which placed particular emphasis, inter alia, on tobacco and which recommended a series of practical and targeted steps to address the challenges in these areas.

• (6) 

  The recommended actions are necessary against a background of 500000 smoking related deaths annually in the European Community and a worrying increase in the number of children and adolescents who take up smoking. Smoking is damaging human health, as smokers become addicted to nicotine and suffer fatal and disabling diseases such as cancers of the lung and other organs, ischaemic heart disease and other circulatory diseases, and respiratory diseases such as emphysema.

• (7) 

  Smoking prevention and tobacco control are already priority objectives in the public health policies of Member States and the European Community. Nevertheless, smoking remains the biggest form of preventable death in the European Union, and progress in reducing tobacco consumption and smoking incidence is still disappointing. Moreover, the advertising, marketing, and promotion strategies used by the tobacco industry foster tobacco consumption, thereby increasing the already high mortality and morbidity caused by the use of tobacco products. Some of these strategies appear to be targeting young people in their educational years, in order to replace the large number of smokers who die annually. It is in fact established that 60 % of smokers start the habit before 13 years of age, and 90 % before 18.

• (8) 

  Through the Europe Against Cancer programme(7), the European Community has set as one of its objectives a contribution to the improvement of the health of its citizens by reducing the number of cases of cancer and other diseases related to...

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