Will the Law on Smoking Protection start on March 1 as proposed in the legal solution or will it begin to be implemented in phases?
State Counselor Nikola Grbchevski from the Macedonian Ministry of Health said in an interview with TV21 that he would not call the possible delay in the implementation of the law a postponement, but rather a phased implementation.
“In a dialogue with the public and the business community, we will proceed with a soft implementation of the law, which will initially mean warnings, education, and side-by-side work towards fulfilling the conditions for creating smoke-free public spaces. Whether the law will be adopted by March 1 depends on many factors. We are conducting an institutional discussion, receiving feedback from all those involved in the implementation. The Ministry’s position is that the law should be adopted as soon as possible, but the implementation would proceed in phases – that is, warnings would be issued first, and then fines would follow. We are facing a huge problem, almost half of the country smokes, there is a striking trend among young people to smoke, and we want to prevent that,” said Grbchevski and added that talks with all stakeholders are still ongoing. He explained that the new law will prohibit smoking regular cigarettes, e-cigarettes and the use of heated tobacco devices in all public and closed spaces.
