CROATIA: Smoking ban in all public places including restaurants, cafes and bars takes effect in Croatia, angering smokers and business owners

Record ID: 560345

  • Title: CROATIA: Smoking ban in all public places including restaurants, cafes and bars takes effect in Croatia, angering smokers and business owners
  • Date: 7th May 2009
  • Summary: ZAGREB, CROATIA (MAY 9, 2009) (REUTERS) PEOPLE WALKING IN STREET GROUP OF PEOPLE SITTING IN OUTDOOR CAFE SMOKING WOMAN SMOKING PACKET OF CIGARETTES ON TABLE / WOMAN TALKING (SOUNDBITE) (Croatian) STUDENT, TIJANA PIVCEVIC SAYING: "Restaurants and bars will be much more affected when winter comes, it will be fine now in the summer. When winter comes significantly fewer people will go to restaurants which will worsen the impact of the recession even more." WAITER CARRYING TRAY, WALKING INTO EMPTY CAFE FROM OUTDOOR AREA (SOUNDBITE) (Croatian) WAITER, MARKO STIPCIC SAYING: "So far today we did not have a single customer inside the cafe. Everyone is outside. We will see how we are going to handle this in the winter, we will probably put the heaters outside. One thing is certain, business will suffer." SIGN READING: "SMOKING BANNED" ON TABLE AT MOKA CAFE, CUSTOMERS SITTING BY THE BAR (SOUNDBITE) (Croatian) WAITRESS, VERICA MESIC SAYING: "We have more clients who are smokers than those who are not, we will see what will happen now." GROUP OF PEOPLE SITTING AROUND TABLE IN FRONT OF MOKA CAFE HAND HOLDING CIGARETTE PEOPLE IN SQUARE YOUNG WOMAN SMOKING AT TRAM STOP PEOPLE WALKING IN BUSY SHOPPING STREET PEOPLE SITTING AT TABLES OUTSIDE KOMEDIJA THEATRE CAFE EMPTY TABLES INSIDE KOMEDIJA THEATRE CAFE (SOUNDBITE) (Croatian) OWNER OF KOMEDIJA THEATRE CAFE, DAVOR GRUBIC SAYING: "Today is day one and the club is totally empty. We have a few people sitting at two tables outside and that's it. This is not going to work. They should give restaurants and bars an option to decide whether they want to host smokers or non-smokers. We should have a referendum on this." PEOPLE SITTING AT TABLES OUTSIDE KOMEDIJA THEATRE CAFE, SMOKING CIGARETTE BURNING IN ASHTRAY
  • Embargoed: 22nd May 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Croatia
  • Country: Croatia
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVABNP37HETSU29QMZMMZJ5397FB
  • Story Text: For more than one million Croatian smokers, the world turned upside down on Wednesday (May 6).
    After decades of a lifestyle in which cigarettes were taken for granted, a smoking ban in all public places took effect, causing a major shock for the smoking population, which amounts to one third of the country's 4.4 million people.
    Fines ranging from 1,000 kuna (135 euros approx) for smokers to 15,000 kuna (2,035 euros approx) for owners of premises, make sure the law will be respected, at least to begin with.
    Cafes in downtown Zagreb, usually swarming with people, were deserted.
    Instead, smokers were puffing in seating areas outside.
    "Restaurants and bars will be much more affected when winter comes, it will be fine now in the summer. When winter comes significantly fewer people will go to restaurants which will worsen the impact of the recession even more," student Tijana Pivcevic said, sitting outside Zagreb's popular "Krolo" bar and coffee shop.
    This fear is shared by business owners and employees in the service industry.
    "So far today we did not have a single customer inside the cafe.
    Everyone is outside. We will see how we are going to handle this in the winter, we will probably put the heaters outside. One thing is certain, business will suffer," waiter Marko Stipcic at "Segafredo"
    coffee shop in central Zagreb said.
    "We have more clients who are smokers than those who are not, we will see what will happen now" said Verica Mesic, a waitress at "Moka" cafe.
    In the past week local newspapers ran dozens of anti-smoking tips and in shops no-smoking signs sold like hot cakes. Health officials say almost 13,000 people - the size of a small town - die of smoking in Croatia each year. Health Minister Darko Milinovic said this simply had to stop.
    But most cafe and restaurant owners complained the ban would cripple their business and should have been delayed because of the recession, which has taken a heavy toll on the European Union candidate country.
    "Today is day one and the club is totally empty. We have a few people sitting at two tables outside and that's it. This is not going to work.
    They should give restaurants and bars an option to decide whether they want to host smokers or non-smokers. We should have a referendum on this," said Davor Grubic who runs a small cafe in the popular "Komedija"
    theatre.
    "Nacional" weekly published a smokers eulogy.
    "They say that about 50 percent of fatal diseases are caused by smoking. That means from now on we'll be 50 percent immortal," writer Renato Baretic, himself a smoker, wrote in his column in Nacional.
    "Thank God I am going away for a month to Austria, smokers' last haven in the European Union," he added.
    So far, Croatia is the only Balkan country where smoking in public has been effectively outlawed.
    Neighbouring Serbia nominally banned smoking in public places in 1995 but the law has never been implemented. A new, stricter law is expected at the end of the year.
    Bosnia - a country for which coffee and cigarettes are almost a trademark sign - seems even worse off. A recent study showed that some 37 percent of Bosnians are active smokers, twice the European average.
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