Health Minister Andreas Loverdos was adamant that a ban on smoking in public will be fully enforced without exceptions or modifications, while speaking to reporters on Tuesday.
“This is it. They have smoked all they are going to smoke in bars, restaurants and cafes in the past months”, he stressed.
Loverdos said that he had presented two proposals for the anti-smoking law to the Ministerial Committee and Prime Minister George Papandreou on Monday. The first had called for interventions but also a few exceptions, especially for venues serving alcohol. The second proposed more inspections and stricter enforcement of the law, as it had been originally voted.
After discussions on the various proposals, the meeting reached a clear decision in favour of stepping up inspections and enforcing the ban, the Minister claimed.
The Minister announced that an additional eight-hundred workers will be appointed to the Labour Inspectorate to increase inspection teams, as well as another forty to the Health Inspectors Corps.
“The Greek state cannot continue to be made a laughing-stock,” Loverdos stressed, insisting that the law would be enforced in its current form.
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