11 October 2007

 THE HAGUE - Health Minister Ab Klink will not crack down on smoking on café terraces. If a café, bar or restaurant has an open space that can be regarded as an outdoor space then smoking is allowed there.

Klink said this on Wednesday in parliament, where MPs accused him of being vague about smoking on terraces. In the details of the ban on smoking in the catering industry Klink wrote that smoking under canopies and covered terraces will not be allowed. Koninklijke Horeca Nederland (KHN), the lobby for the catering industry, feared that Klink had tightened up his policy.

Together with the catering industry Klink wants to determine how large an open space should be to call it a terrace. He said he would try to be as big-hearted as he could, but he does not want to have to deal with entrepreneurs for whom a small open space in a café, bar or restaurant is already enough to deserve the name terrace.

The minister told parliament that he wanted "no rigid situations" surrounding the smoking ban in the catering industry, that will come into force on 1 July 2008. Parliament accused the minister of tightening the rules when fleshing out the details of the plan, but the minister was able to reassure the MPs.

The impression had arisen that the smoking areas that cafés and restaurants were still allowed to have were only meant to have a quick drag. MP Agnes Kant (SP) already spoke of a broom cupboard where the smoker could have a quick puff, while the idea was that the smoking areas would be a full part of the bar or café. Klink assured parliament that this would be the case; there will however be no service in that area because the staff should be protected against tobacco smoke.

[Copyright Expatica News + ANP 2007]
Subject: Dutch news