Prague, March 14 (CTK) – The minority government of Andrej Babis (ANO) rejected on Wednesday the deputies’ draft amendment to soften the anti-smoking law by enabling to establish separated smoking rooms in restaurants.
Regardless of the government stance, the Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Czech parliament, will now debate the draft amendment.
The complete ban of smoking in restaurants, bars and similar public establishments took effect at the end of last May. The law also introduced further restrictions concerning the sale of alcohol and tobacco products.
Health Minister Adam Vojtech (ANO), who opposed any softening of the anti-smoking law, told reporters during the government meeting that most ministers agreed it was too early to assess the law’s effect.
A deeper impact of the law, including the decrease in the number of smokers and the incidence of smoking-related diseases, can be assessed in several years only, he added.
The government legal experts also recommended that the cabinet reject the MP’s draft.
However, some ministers, such as Regional Development Minister Klara Dostalova (ANO) and Labour and Social Affairs Minister Jaroslava Nemcova (ANO), supported the softening of the anti-smoking legislation when they arrived to the government meeting.
According to the draft amendment, initiated by right-wing Civic Democrat (ODS) MP Marek Benda and signed by 90 deputies from eight groups, separated smoking rooms would be allowed in selected types of establishments. These rooms must have their own air-conditioning and would be unattended by waiters. The smoking rooms could take up 30 percent of the restaurant’s area at the most.
The draft also enables the owners of small bars and pubs, with the area under 80 square metres, to decide whether their establishment will be smoking or non-smoking one.
Furthermore, the draft would lift the pub operators’ responsibility for selling alcohol to an adult person whose subsequent activity could endanger others or cause a property damage.
Benda said on Wednesday he had expected the government’s decision.
Yet he reminded of Babis changing his opinion on the issue as before the last October general election he had said he would support the softening of the anti-smoking bill because it threatened the operation of village pubs. “However, this was before the election when it was necessary to attract voters by any possible means,” Benda said.
The draft amendment authors argue that the current anti-smoking legislation is too strict and has caused the decline in business mainly of small country pubs. Besides, people now smoke outside restaurants where they disturb the inhabitants of surrounding flats and houses by smoke and noise.
Sanitary inspectors have carried out more than 6,000 checks of the observance of the ban on smoking and selling alcohol and tobacco products to underage youth in restaurants all over the country. They collected a total of 243,000 crowns in fines from more than 100 pub operators, daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) wrote on Wednesday.
The highest number of fines (32) were imposed in the Usti Region, north Bohemia, totalling 120,000 crowns. Most checks of the smoking ban in restaurants were initiated by citizens’ reports to the authorities, MfD adds.
