Europe has generally been lagging behind the US in supporting and implementing non-smokers' rights. Over the last few years this has started to change - Italy, Ireland, France and the UK have all passed more or less strict laws banning smoking from many public places. Italy is an interesting example - the Italians are generally not known for obeying the law rigorously, but the smoking law (which bans smoking in most public places) has been a general success. I remember well a vacation in Italy soon after the smoking ban went into effect; how pleasant it was to eat dinner in a restaurant without being bothered by clouds of smoke from the next table, or having our clothes stink like smoke after leaving the restaurant. "If only Germany would pass a modern smoking law," I thought.
I'm a not smoker. I used to smoke a pipe, but I gave that up about15 years ago. Once in a great while I'll smoke a cigar. Just so you all know where I'm coming from.
So in 2007 Germany started to jump on the non-smoking bandwagon. Since Germany is a federal republic and matters pertaining to restaurants are generally in the hands of the states, it was clear that there wouldn't be a single federal law to regulate this. It was going to be up to each state to come up with something on its own. As the opinion in favor of at least partial smoking bans grew in recent years, many voices were heard saying, "We don't want to over-regulate this!" or "Let's leave it up to the individual innkeepers whether they want to be non-smoking establishments or not." Well, this approach was not working. Munich, a city of over a million, had only a handful of non-smoking restaurants. Oh sure, some restaurants were starting to add non-smoking areas, but usually these weren't even separated by a door from the smoking areas. Each restaurant owner was afraid of losing market share to the others if they converted to non-smoking. Seems like a pretty clear case of market failure to me.
In the course of 2007 a number of German states passed smoking bans of varying strictness. Bavaria's law was the strictest of them all. This was somewhat surprising given the frequent appeals to "Liberalitas Bavariae" by Bavarain politicians. Smoking was to be banned in virtually every public place and public establishment, even in beer tents, even in beer tents at the Oktoberfest. A heated debate broke out. Many smokers were in favor of the new law, many non-smokers were against it; many feared the so-called Gemütlichkeit of the traditional Bavarian inns would suffer. The law came into effect in 2008, and it didn't take long for the clever Bavarian innkeepers to figure out ways of getting around it. A loophole in the law allowed smoking in private gatherings; many pub owners declared their establishments to be "smoking clubs," effectively making them private gatherings. Of course to meet the letter of the law they had to issue membership cards and exclude non-members, but this proved not to be a high barrier. Hundreds of pubs became smoking clubs; the authorities didn't even attempt to check whether they were really "members only."
In the meantime those who were obeying the law complained about declining revenue. There were those with increased revenue, but they didn't usually get as much attention in the press. It should have been obvious that it would take a few months for people to adjust to the new law; experience in Ireland and Italy actually showed increased revenue after a time. Bavarian politicians started wavering; one of the first aspects of the law to fall was the smoking ban at the Oktoberfest - "Impossible to enforce" was the reason given. Yet on the whole most folks got along well with the new situation. Non-smokers enjoyed visiting restaurants more - except for those who were disturbed because their smoking friends had to go outside to grab a quick butt during a meal. Personal note - smokers, I'm sorry, but anybody who can't manage to eat an entire meal without having to smoke a cigarette is pretty pathetic.
In September the Bavarian state parliament was up for reelection, the ruling CSU party, which governed without a coalition partner, suffered one of the worst results of its history. Many were quick to give the blame to the smoking ban, although the government led by Günther Beckstein had many other problems which caused the debacle. One of the first things the new CSU/FDP coalition government under new minister president Horst Seehofer decided was to weaken the smoking ban.
New howls of protest ensued - even the smokers had gotten used to the strict law, and now innkeepers would have to change their policies again. The new law - which allows small one-room pubs to make their own decision whether to allow smoking or not - will come into effect in August. Let's see how long it takes before people start complaining about this one.
Just another example of how things long accepted in other countries cause heated yammering when their adoption is considered in Germany.
I'm a not smoker. I used to smoke a pipe, but I gave that up about15 years ago. Once in a great while I'll smoke a cigar. Just so you all know where I'm coming from.
So in 2007 Germany started to jump on the non-smoking bandwagon. Since Germany is a federal republic and matters pertaining to restaurants are generally in the hands of the states, it was clear that there wouldn't be a single federal law to regulate this. It was going to be up to each state to come up with something on its own. As the opinion in favor of at least partial smoking bans grew in recent years, many voices were heard saying, "We don't want to over-regulate this!" or "Let's leave it up to the individual innkeepers whether they want to be non-smoking establishments or not." Well, this approach was not working. Munich, a city of over a million, had only a handful of non-smoking restaurants. Oh sure, some restaurants were starting to add non-smoking areas, but usually these weren't even separated by a door from the smoking areas. Each restaurant owner was afraid of losing market share to the others if they converted to non-smoking. Seems like a pretty clear case of market failure to me.
In the course of 2007 a number of German states passed smoking bans of varying strictness. Bavaria's law was the strictest of them all. This was somewhat surprising given the frequent appeals to "Liberalitas Bavariae" by Bavarain politicians. Smoking was to be banned in virtually every public place and public establishment, even in beer tents, even in beer tents at the Oktoberfest. A heated debate broke out. Many smokers were in favor of the new law, many non-smokers were against it; many feared the so-called Gemütlichkeit of the traditional Bavarian inns would suffer. The law came into effect in 2008, and it didn't take long for the clever Bavarian innkeepers to figure out ways of getting around it. A loophole in the law allowed smoking in private gatherings; many pub owners declared their establishments to be "smoking clubs," effectively making them private gatherings. Of course to meet the letter of the law they had to issue membership cards and exclude non-members, but this proved not to be a high barrier. Hundreds of pubs became smoking clubs; the authorities didn't even attempt to check whether they were really "members only."
In the meantime those who were obeying the law complained about declining revenue. There were those with increased revenue, but they didn't usually get as much attention in the press. It should have been obvious that it would take a few months for people to adjust to the new law; experience in Ireland and Italy actually showed increased revenue after a time. Bavarian politicians started wavering; one of the first aspects of the law to fall was the smoking ban at the Oktoberfest - "Impossible to enforce" was the reason given. Yet on the whole most folks got along well with the new situation. Non-smokers enjoyed visiting restaurants more - except for those who were disturbed because their smoking friends had to go outside to grab a quick butt during a meal. Personal note - smokers, I'm sorry, but anybody who can't manage to eat an entire meal without having to smoke a cigarette is pretty pathetic.
In September the Bavarian state parliament was up for reelection, the ruling CSU party, which governed without a coalition partner, suffered one of the worst results of its history. Many were quick to give the blame to the smoking ban, although the government led by Günther Beckstein had many other problems which caused the debacle. One of the first things the new CSU/FDP coalition government under new minister president Horst Seehofer decided was to weaken the smoking ban.
New howls of protest ensued - even the smokers had gotten used to the strict law, and now innkeepers would have to change their policies again. The new law - which allows small one-room pubs to make their own decision whether to allow smoking or not - will come into effect in August. Let's see how long it takes before people start complaining about this one.
Just another example of how things long accepted in other countries cause heated yammering when their adoption is considered in Germany.
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