John Ryan of the European Commission receives a WHO Tobacco Free World award
Copenhagen
John Ryan, the Acting Head of Unit of the Cancer, Drugs and Pollution-related Disease Unit in the European Commission (EC) was presented with a WHO Tobacco-free World Award this week, acknowledging his leadership in tobacco control.
"The European directive banning tobacco advertising and sponsorship, which Mr Ryan helped guide through its approval process, has been a giant step in Europe's fight for a tobacco-free world," stated Dr Marc Danzon, WHO Regional Director for Europe, when presenting the award. "We are very grateful for Mr Ryan's continuing public health leadership, as a member of the WHO Committee for a Tobacco-free Europe, as the chief EC representative in the negotiations on the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and in his continuing work to regulate the tobacco industry and protect the health of Europe's citizens."
"I am very pleased to accept this award on behalf of all my colleagues who have worked for so many years to bring this advertising and sponsorship directive and other tobacco control regulations into effect," said John Ryan in accepting the award.
The 1998 directive on tobacco advertising covers all forms of direct and indirect promotion in favour of tobacco products, including sponsorship. It completes an earlier European Union (EU) directive of 1989 that banned the advertising of tobacco products on television and the sponsorship of television programmes by tobacco companies.
The 1998 directive is designed to set common rules on advertising and sponsorship, to ensure a level regulatory framework between the 15 EU member states. The directive takes as its basis a high level of public health protection. It is also part of the package of law that candidate countries will adopt when they join the EU. At present, there are 12 candidates for accession.
The directive is an instrument of EU law that sets objectives that have to be met in implementing law of the individual member states. The EC verifies that this transposition is correctly carried out. This verification is underway at present.
Germany, however, has challenged the EU directive in the Court of Justice in Luxembourg, asking whether the EU Treaty provides a sufficient legal basis to ban tobacco advertising or whether this is a matter for the member states. A decision from the Court is expected in early October.
Formal negotiations for the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the world's first public health treaty, begin in Geneva on 15 October 2000. This includes advertising and sponsorship provisions which compliment the EC legislation. For more information see the WHO WorldWide Web site (http://www.who.int).
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