Ukrainian anti-tobacco groups say proposed legislation aimed at de-glamorizing and reducing smoking is being deliberately stymied by another draft law proposed by members of the parliamentary tax committee.
Activists
have been trying to get law No. 2820, drafted by the health committee, on
parliament’s agenda for more than a year, and had finally managed to secure its
first reading for May 31 — World No Tobacco Day.
But the
reading of the anti-tobacco law has been delayed so that legislation put
forward by members of the tax committee can also be considered by lawmakers.
According
to Andriy Skipalskiy, the head of Life, the Ukrainian non-governmental
organization for tobacco control, the tax committee’s proposal is based on
European Union directive number 37 of 2001, and fails to include many of the
norms of the latest EU directive, (number 40), issued in 2014.
“This
law doesn’t regulate any tax or prices,” Skipalskiy told the Kyiv Post
outside parliament on May 31. “This is, in effect, lobbying.”
If the activists’
law, which is in line with the latest EU directive, is approved by parliament,
it will introduce larger and more varied health warnings on both sides of
cigarette packs, a ban on flavored and aromatized tobacco, regulations on the
marketing of e-cigarettes, more public information on the contents of tobacco
products, and a ban on online tobacco advertising.
In 2004,
when similar legislation was introduced in Singapore, 28 percent of smokers
questioned in a government survey said that they had started smoking less
because of the new packaging, 14 percent said they now avoided smoking around
children, 12 percent said they had stopped smoking near pregnant women, and 8
percent had started smoking less at home.
Under the
EU Association Agreement, Ukraine is obliged to introduce the 2001 norms.
However, as of May 20, 2016, the 2001 directive was officially replaced by the
2014 directive. Anti-tobacco activists
argue that only the latest directive constitutes real EU integration.
“The
2001 directive is very formal. It only has two norms: about chewing tobacco and
about the placement of nicotine-content information on packets,” said
Skipalskiy.
The tax
committee will meet on June 1 to discuss the second draft law. Skipalskiy told
Kyiv Post that it looks like both laws will be voted on by Ukrainian lawmakers
on June 2.
Activists
worry that lawmakers could be manipulated if faced with two simultaneous
proposals, and that the less stringent law could end up being the one that is
prepared for second reading by the tax committee.
“When
it comes to conscious decisions, members of parliament are OK. But there will
be a lot of manipulations,” says Skipalskiy.
Only
several members of parliament joined the activists at parliament for World No
Tobacco Day: Oksana Korchinska, Viktor Kryvenko, Pavlo Ukhuryan, Ihor Lutsenko,
Oleh Musiy and Hanna Hopko.
According
to Life, just under one third of Ukrainians smoke, and 63,000 die annually as a
result of smoking.
Kyiv Post staff
writer Isobel Koshiw can be reached at [email protected]
