Malta had the highest number of smokers within the EU who signed up for a European online smoking cessation programme when compared to the rest of the EU, European Health Commissioner Tonio Borg said.
About 2,000 Maltese applied to join iCoach, which was also available as a mobile phone app, and about 42 per cent managed to stop after three months, Dr Borg told a press conference yesterday.
The local success rate was higher than the reported quit rate of 37 per cent for the rest of the EU. Around 400,000 people have joined since it was launched in June 2011.
This tool is part of the EU Ex-Smokers Are Unstoppable campaign and aims to cut the rate of smokers in the EU by two per cent, or 2.4 million smokers. As part of the campaign, September 26 will be declared Day of the Ex-Smoker.
The local success rate was higher than the reported quit rate of 37 per cent for the rest of the EU
When asked whether he was confident the Tobacco Directive would go through before the next EU presidency, Dr Borg said he was.
While pointing out that he could only predict the outcome, as the decision did not depend on the European Commission but on the approval by the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers, Dr Borg said that, so far, it had moved “very well”.
Within six months, member states in the Council of Ministers approved a common approach to the directive and now the negotiations with Parliament would start, he said. “It is a great victory to me,” Dr Borg said.
The chances that the negotiations would start and finish by the end of the year “is very good,” he added. Hopefully, it would be approved by the next MEP elections in May.
The proposed directive, which Dr Borg described as “reasonable”, did not stop people from smoking but, most importantly, pushed for the tobacco product to look and taste like one. He pointed out that there was resistance to the directive and “this is a feather in our cap”.
When asked whether the directive would be amended, Dr Borg said it was very rare that any law was approved without amendments. “The art of compromise is inherent in all laws but I haven’t proposed any changes,” he said.
For more information please visit www.exsmokers.eu.