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HEALTH

‘Long overdue’: German coalition agrees to ban tobacco advertising

Advertising tobacco products in German streets will be banned from January 2022, according to a draft law released on Thursday, following a U-turn by the governing conservatives.

Published: 22 May 2020 09:02 CEST

Although tobacco advertising is outlawed in the media, Germany is the only European Union country that still allows street posters and cinema advertising.

The bill, due to be debated in parliament next week, was agreed after long negotiations among the governing coalition.

READ ALSO: German doctors call for complete ban on smoking advertising

A similar initiative in 2016 failed after it was opposed by Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative CDU/CSU bloc, but the party changed its position at the end of last year.

The proposed law includes plans to end free distribution of cigarettes at events and limit advertising in cinemas to films aimed at adults.

The advertising ban will be widened to include electronic cigarettes by 2024.

The new measures, combined with existing restrictions, are an “effective way to lower the number of smokers” in Germany, according to the bill.

“Limiting tobacco advertising on the street and in cinemas is long overdue,” Julia Klöckner, the minister responsible for consumer protection, told local media.

“Above all, we have to protect young people, so that ideally they don't even start smoking.”

Some 15 percent of German adults smoked cigarettes every day compared with an EU average of 19 percent, according to EU data from 2014.

READ ALSO: Opinion: Why Germany needs to take the smoking ban more seriously

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HEALTH

Lengthy waiting times at Danish hospitals not going away yet: minister

Danish Minister for the Interior and Health Sophie Løhde has warned that, despite increasing activity at hospitals, it will be some time before current waiting lists are reduced.

Published: 10 May 2023 15:09 CEST
Lengthy waiting times at Danish hospitals not going away yet: minister

The message comes as Løhde was set to meet with officials from regional health authorities on Wednesday to discuss the progress of an acute plan for the Danish health system, launched at the end of last year in an effort to reduce a backlog of waiting times which built up during the coronavirus crisis.

An agreement with regional health authorities on an “acute” spending plan to address the most serious challenges faced by the health services agreed in February, providing 2 billion kroner by the end of 2024.

READ ALSO: What exactly is wrong with the Danish health system?

The national organisation for the health authorities, Danske Regioner, said to newspaper Jyllands-Posten earlier this week that progress on clearing the waiting lists was ahead of schedule.

Some 245,300 operations were completed in the first quarter of this year, 10 percent more than in the same period in 2022 and over the agreed number.

Løhde said that the figures show measures from the acute plan are “beginning to work”.

“It’s positive but even though it suggests that the trend is going the right way, we’re far from our goal and it’s important to keep it up so that we get there,” she said.

“I certainly won’t be satisfied until waiting times are brought down,” she said.

“As long as we are in the process of doing postponed operations, we will unfortunately continue to see a further increase [in waiting times],” Løhde said.

“That’s why it’s crucial that we retain a high activity this year and in 2024,” she added.

Although the government set aside 2 billion kroner in total for the plan, the regional authorities expect the portion of that to be spent in 2023 to run out by the end of the summer. They have therefore asked for some of the 2024 spending to be brought forward.

Løhde is so far reluctant to meet that request according to Jyllands-Posten.

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