Serbia is just at the beginning of the road in addressing economic and health issues related to tobacco use and needs to allign tobacco legislation with the EU. According to the results of the Twinning Light Project “Improving Tobacco Control in the Republic of Serbia,” the big death toll and economic costs of tobacco use in Serbia are not fully understood, said Oskar Benedikt, Deputy Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia.
The occurrence of tobacco-related diseases is still on the rise in Serbia while is most EU countries these diseases are decreasing, he said.
“That is why raising public awareness among the decision makers, health professionals and the public is so important, along with changes in the legislation. Also, help for people to quit smoking needs more resources,” Benedikt said at the closing conference of Twinning Light Project “Improving Tobacco Control in the Republic of Serbia.”
The subject is significant both for Serbia and for the EU, Benedikt said, underlinging that “it is important that Serbian Tobacco legislation is aligned with the EU legislation and the new directive that includes, among others, better warnings for packages: The directive requires combined warnings with both text and pictures that cover 65% of both large sides of the packages.”
Flavours including menthols in cigarettes shall be banned, and there will be stricter regulations about the tobacco product ingredients. There are new provisions on electronic cigarettes too, he added.
Serbia also needs to alight excise tax laws with the EU directives on tobacco taxation and some recommendations on changes have been provided under this project, while detailed proposals are yet to be elaborated, Benedikt said.
Although Serbia’s position in the European Tobacco Control Scale by Joossens and Raw is 23 out of 34 “still, I believe that this Light Twinning deserves praise, as I believe it has increased the overall awareness of the tobacco problem,” he added.
