First the blanket ban on smoking ...
... next the ban on alcohol advertising? Even without a government, Belgium seems to get things done. On 1 July 2011 a ban on smoking in cafés was introduced following a ruling by Belgium’s Constitutional Court.
Cafés which did not serve food had hitherto enjoyed an exemption from the anti-smoking law passed in 2009.
The 2009 law banned smoking in workplaces as well as in restaurants and pubs where food is served to consumers.
However, when the law was passed, Belgium’s then government provided a temporary relief to cafés. Smoking was still allowed in cafés which only served snacks such as crisps or peanuts. Still, this exception was to be scrapped between 2012 and 2014.
Although representatives of the on-trade have argued that the ban on smoking could put 2,000 of Belgium’s 7,000 cafés at risk, the Constitutional Court decided that the publicans had not argued their case sufficiently to uphold the cafés’ exemption.
Following the ban on smoking in cafés, whose expediency took many by surprise, Belgium’s brewers worry that a ban on alcohol advertising could be next.
The regional Walloon government passed a recommendation to this effect at the beginning of 2011. This recommendation is now making its way through parliament at such speed that a resolution could be issued this month.
A resolution isn’t a law, though. But it makes for good political window-dressing.
Thirteen months after Belgium went to the polls, the country still has no national government because Flemish and Walloon parties have refused to give in to specific demands.
However, in the case of the ban on alcohol advertising, the Walloons might hope that a resolution in the Belgian national parliament could persuade their Flemish counterparts in the regional Flemish government to pass a similar law. Provided all the regional parliaments agreed on a ban on alcohol advertising, that could lead to a de facto ban in the whole country.
Belgian constitutional experts will probable quibble over whether the regional parliaments have the right to pass such a law.
In the meantime, Belgian brewers are well-advised to be watchful.
