The Romanian Parliament voted on 15 December 2015 on a total ban of smoking in enclosed public places and playgrounds. The law will be signed by the President, expectedly next week, and will enter into force 45 days after its publication in the Official Journal, e.g, first half of February 2016.
On 30 November 2015, France completed the process of ratifying the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products by depositing its ratification instrument at the UN treaty section.
Please see details at the following link: https://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/CN/2015/CN.635.2015-Eng.pdf
Earlier, on 26 October 2015, the French parliament adopted a law to this end, which was then promulgated by the President on the ratification of the Protocol.
Several activities have recently been implemented in Gabon that correspond to the recommendations of the needs assessment exercise that has been jointly implemented by the Convention Secretariat and the Government of Gabon.
On 25 November 2015 a Commission Implementing Decision was adopted by the European Commission, which establishes a common format for the reporting of information on ingredients and emissions of tobacco products.
This Decision supports implementation of Directive 2014/40/EU, which entered into force 19 May 2014 and aims to improve the functioning of the internal market for tobacco and related products, while ensuring a high level of health protection for European citizens.
The Kingdom of Tonga is a Party to the Convention since 2005.
Although progress has been made in implementing some of the provisions of the WHO FCTC, such as increasing tobacco taxes, the smoking prevalence is still very high, especially among men (46%).
That is the reason why Tonga requested assistance from the Convention Secretariat for conducting a joint needs assessment mission to plan future actions to strengthen implementation of the WHO FCTC.
The Government announced in October 2015 that tobacco packages in Nepal will carry pictorial health warnings covering 90% of the main surface areas, up from the previous 75%.
Nepal's pictorial warnings are the largest in the world; by size, the Nepalese warnings are followed by Australia's (82.5% in average, but please note than Australia has implemented plain packaging). Thailand and Uruguay require 80-85% warning size.
The legislative process leading to the ratification of the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products has come to an end in France on 26 October 2015.
The French Parliament (agreed identically by the Assemblée Nationale and the Sénat) adopted a law to this end, which was then promulgated by the President. "LOI n° 2015-1350 du 26 octobre 2015 autorisant la ratification du protocole pour éliminer le commerce illicite des produits du tabac" is available under the following link:
An implementing act adopted today lays out specifications for the new combined health warnings on packages of tobacco products for smoking (in particular cigarettes and roll-your-own tobacco), which are required under the 2014 Tobacco Products Directive.
The measure strengthens implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control to which the European Union is a Party.
On 7 October 2015 parliamentarians of the Healthcare Committee of the Ukrainian Parliament recommended the draft law 2820 "On the amendment of some laws protecting the public from the harmful effects of tobacco use" for its first hearing in the Parliament.