Spain’s anti-smoking law approved for vote in parliament

Spain’s Council of Ministers yesterday approved the government’s new anti-tobacco law, which will ban smoking on outdoor terraces. The law will now be submitted to a vote in parliament.

Among other measures, the law will ban smoking on restaurant terraces, as well as at open air concerts, in bus shelters, on hospital grounds and on public sports facilities. It will also treat vapes equally to cigarettes.

The government failed to agree on introducing plain packaging for all tobacco products but still hopes that it may introduce this as an amendment.

The wafer-thin majority enjoyed by Pedro Sánchez’s government means that the passage of the bill is not certain, but the likelihood is that terraces will be smoke-free zones fairly soon.