GREECE: Increasing numbers of restaurants, cafes and bars in Greece are defying a smoking ban, which they say is killing business in the current tough economic climate

Record ID: 561931

  • Title: GREECE: Increasing numbers of restaurants, cafes and bars in Greece are defying a smoking ban, which they say is killing business in the current tough economic climate
  • Date: 19th October 2010
  • Summary: ATHENS, GREECE (OCTOBER 18, 2010) (REUTERS) OWNER NIKOS KOUTOUZIS STANDING IN HIS RESTAURANT CAFE AT THE BAR VARIOUS OF ASHTRAYS PLACED BACK ON THE TABLES VARIOUS ASHTRAYS ON THE TABLES BARTENDER SMOKING KOUTOUZIS SPEAKING TO THE BARTENDER, WHO IS SMOKING INSIDE (SOUNDBITE) (Greek) NIKOS KOUTOUZIS, RESTAURANT-CAFE OWNER SAYING: "This is a problem; both for us and smokers. As businessmen we are not for or against smokers or non-smokers, all we care about is that customers come to our establishments. At the moment, there is a huge problem in restaurants, bars and cafes because of the economic crisis, and this smoking ban has unfortunately come along and worsened the situation even further." INTERIOR OF CAFE BAR OWNED BY FILIO KOROLOGOU KOROLOGOU SITTING AT BAR SMOKING, CUSTOMER SITTING NEXT TO HER SMOKING CUSTOMER SITTING AT BAR SMOKING (SOUNDBITE) (Greek) FILIO KOROLOGOU, CAFE-BAR OWNER SAYING: "I am prepared to pay a fine, yes definitely, because there is just no other way: we won't change our stance, for us it is absolutely necessary to have a choice to make the bar smoking or non-smoking; we have suffered a huge loss in business." STELLA TSAGARAKIS AND HER FRIENDS SITTING IN THE BAR, HER FRIENDS SMOKING STELLA'S FRIEND DRAWING ON CIGARETTE (SOUNDBITE) (Greek) STELLA TSAGARAKIS, 23, NON- SMOKER SAYING: "Usually I go to another cafe where no one smokes, fortunately. In general I am trying to avoid these types of places. This just really really irritates me." STELLA AND HER GIRLFRIENDS SITTING INSIDE THE BAR
  • Embargoed: 3rd November 2010 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Greece
  • Country: Greece
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,General
  • Reuters ID: LVADUBTLAJD50ET1RMAV5MYY2MLH
  • Story Text: Businesses belonging to the Greek Federation of Restaurant Owners put ashtrays back on their tables on Monday (October 18) and let customers smoke freely, breaking a month-old ban that prohibits smoking in all indoor places.
    The owners of restaurants, bars, cafes, and nightclubs are up in arms over the wide reaching law, saying their businesses have dived since it came into effect on September 1st.
    This is Greece's third attempt, at least, to rid public spaces of smokers, in a country where almost half the population lights up.
    But owners say after being hit by the economic crisis in Greece, this is the last 'nail in the coffin' with some suffering a reduction of as much as 40 percent in revenues.
    "This is a problem; both for us and smokers. As businessmen we are not for or against smokers or non-smokers, all we care about is that customers come to our establishments. At the moment, there is a huge problem in restaurants, bars and cafes because of the economic crisis, and this smoking ban has unfortunately come along and worsened the situation even further," said restaurant-cafe owner Nikos Koutouzis, who had been enforcing the ban until Monday.
    Koutouzis and other owners want the law to be postponed for the next two or three years or until the worst of the country's debt crisis is over.
    The ban introduced on September 1 is the most stringent, after several attempts in the last years to get Greeks to butt out. It prohibits people to smoke in any indoor place, and an amendment was even added prohibiting smoking in cars with children under the age of 12.
    One month later most Greeks are not adhering to the new smoking ban, the health ministry said, despite the heavy fines, and in eight of ten cases the ban is not being adhered to.
    There have been at least one thousand public complaints of violations of the law to a telephone hotline that was set up since last month, while inspectors have issued hundreds of fines. Owners and customers have even come to blows with the inspectors that have been entering establishments and issuing fines.
    Inspectors can impose from 100 to up to 10,000 euros in fines on business-owners breaking the law and from 50 to up to 500 euros for smokers.
    One idea is that establishments are once again divided into smoking and non-smoking sections, which was part of the previous law passed in 2009 but abolished by the current law.
    Other owners, particularly bar owners with small establishments that cannot be divided, want the right to choose to be smoking or non-smoking, arguing that most of their customers are smokers.
    "I am prepared to pay a fine, yes definitely, because there is just no other way: we won't change our stance, for us it is absolutely necessary to have a choice to make the bar smoking or non-smoking; we have suffered a huge loss in business," said Filio Korologou, who owns a 40 square metre cafe-bar that she cannot separate into smoking and non sections. Korologou says most of her customers are smokers.
    The move on Monday is the first organized act of defiance to the law, and owners know they face heavy fines, as do customers, if they are caught smoking, but buinesses say they will shut down anyway if trade doesn't not improve.
    But some 50 percent of Greeks are non-smokers, and the government has shown no sign of amending or postponing the law. Twenty-three year old student Stella Tsagarakis, sitting in the same cafe-bar with two of her friends, is a non-smoker, even though her friends are smoking. She made an exception this time, she said, but is adamant the law be upheld, and most of the time will not enter establishments where there is smoking, although that is proving difficult, she said, despite the law.
    "Usually I go to another cafe where no one smokes, fortunately. In general I am trying to avoid these types of places. This just really really irritates me," she said of the law not being upheld.
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