Press Release: Tobacco advertising ban takes effect 31 July

Anticipation of the entry into effect of the EU's Tobacco Advertising Directive on 31 July. Passed by the European Parliament and Council in 2003 (see: IP/02/1788), the Directive bans tobacco advertising in the print media, on radio and over the internet. It also prohibits tobacco sponsorship of cross-border cultural and sporting events. Though most EU countries hade either passed the necessary laws or were in the process of passing them, it was not clear at the time that all would do so by 31 July 2005. In a separate development, the European Commission on 27 July 2005 adopted a report on the implementation of the Tobacco Products Directive.

European Commisison: COM(2005) 339, 'First Report on the application of the Tobacco Products Directive' http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/com/2005/com2005_0339en01.pdf

European Commission: Eur-Lex: Directive 2003/33/EC, 'Tobacco Advertising Directive' http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:32003L0033:EN:HTML

http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/05/274&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=fr http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/05/274&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=fr

---