Europe split on plan to ban menthol and slim cigarettes
Campaigners say they lure young to smoke, but Poland fears job losses and a backlash from ban
New rules being discussed by European Union ministers would ban menthol and slim cigarettes, a move intended to improve the health of Europeans but one that has divided it broadly along cold war lines.
Led by Poland, one of Europe's biggest tobacco producers, a bloc of former communist countries is fighting a rearguard action against the measures, hoping at least to save slim cigarettes, which are popular with many smokers, often women.
The concern of the rule drafters is that slim cigarettes add an allure that attracts young women to smoking and that menthol cigarettes make it easier for young people of both sexes to start, and become hooked on, smoking.
But Poland stands to lose tobacco industry jobs and some politicians worry about seeming high-handed to smokers, an estimated third of the population.
"It's about freedom, to a large extent," said Roza Grafin von Thun und Hohenstein, a centre-right Polish member of the European Parliament.
Thun said she supported the health impulses behind the draft legislation but after listening to objections from voters at a meeting in Krakow she decided the rules should be relaxed. "People said, 'When are you going to prohibit us from drinking wine or vodka, or stop us using white sugar? Maybe you will also tell us to go to bed early because going to bed late is also unhealthy'."
