Too early to talk about EU smoking ban-commissioner

It's too early to talk about a European Union-wide ban on smoking in public places despite moves in several EU states to impose restrictions, European health commissioner Markos Kyprianou said on Friday.

Speaking on the sidelines of Germany's annual Green Week agricultural fair, Kyprianou said there could be legal problems in drawing up an EU-wide ban but did not rule out an initiative if more countries followed the likes of Ireland and Italy.

"At this point I encourage and support the bans that are adopted at any level, whether it's at city, regional or national level," he told Reuters.

"It's a bit early to talk about an EU-wide ban. There would be competence problems at the Community level and also I don't think member states are mature enough to discuss it at EU level."

"But I am confident the more member states adopt this policy individually, the more pressing it will become for the rest to do the same," he added.

Kyprianou said he would like to see the EU take more steps to encourage its own tobacco farmers to switch to other crops.

The EU decoupled subsidies for tobacco farmers from the volume they produce at the start of the year, but Kyprianou suggested the bloc could go further.

"It's strange to say the least that we subsidise production and at the same time discourage consumption," he said.

"I think we have to take more active measures to encourage tobacco growers to move to other crops, with financial help, marketing help to do that," he said.

"Decoupling has just come into force so it's something that would not be for the immediate future. But it's something that should be at the back of our minds," Kyprianou said.

No initiative was likely this year, he added.