Europe is enforcing its fight against tobacco use with new legislation and continuous price hikes this year, making it more and more difficult for smokers to keep puffing.

Many countries across the continent have enacted or are formulating laws to ban smoking in public places, but strong opposition remains against efforts to end the scourge that kills 500,000 each year in the European Union (EU).

In the Netherlands, a new law that came into effect on Jan. 1 prohibits smoking in public places such as public transport, the workplace, cafeterias and toilets. Employees will only be allowed to smoke in special rooms equipped with extractor fans.

So far about 850,000 Dutch have pledged to kick the habit in 2004. They've registered at a website sponsored by the Foundation for Public Health and Smoking, which is geared to providing support for those who would want to give up.

"Most people who registered on the site said they want to quit for health reasons," foundation director Trudy Prins said. "But I think for many people the fact that they will no longer be able to smoke in the workplace, give them extra push."

Sweden has already passed a tough anti-smoking law that will go into effect in 2005. Ireland is also on the verge of passing a ban similar to the Dutch one. Belgium is gradually toughening up legislation against smoking, while Britain is also deliberating a crackdown on smoking in public places.

The EU is also doing its part to build a smoking-free Europe. Earlier this month, the EU Commission announced that it was considering a move to outlaw smoking in bars and restaurants across the 15 member countries.

So far there is no Europe-wide regulation on smoking or the prices of tobacCo

The commission is also compiling a database with photographs of smoking-related illnesses such as necrotic lungs to deter potential smokers.

"SMOKING KILLS"

EU countries could then mandate the use of such photos to the written warning labels that have been required on European cigarette packages since the end of January.

Previous advisory words such as "smoking harms your health" will be changed to more fearful ones like "smoking kills" or " smoking makes you impotent."

As of July 2005, public media across the EU will be banned from carrying tobacco advertisements, and cigarette brands will be prohibited from sponsoring international spectator sports like the Formula One motor racing.

Experts say such actions may seem modest, but they could prove to be important in the long, slow struggle to change Europe' s deep cultural acceptance of smoking.

Progress has been made in the campaign against smoking. Around 80 percent of British companies have voluntarily applied bans or restrictions on workplace smoking, surveys showed.

A similar "revolution" is also sweeping France and Greece. Tobacco prices in France have risen three times in the past 12 months, while cigarette sales dropped by 30 percent in the first 11 months last year compared with the same period of the year before. In Athens, workers are already used to smoking outside workplaces.

Smokers in Britain will more likely be put off by the extortionate cost of their habit. At some 6.5 euro (about US$7.8), Brits pay well over the European odds for their little pack of 20.

OLD HABIT DIES HARD

However, anti-smoking laws, high cigarette prices and deadly illness could not completely stamp out smoking, as craving for cigarettes goes so deep into the European society, politically, physically as well as culturally.

Although most EU countries are taking steps to curb cigarette consumption, Germany has been accused of taking too soft a stance on smoking in public places.

EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection David Byrne has criticized the German government for taking an "easygoing" stance to smoking considering that an estimated 100,000 Germans die of smoking-related diseases every year.

Germany has also come out strongly against an EU initiative to ban cigarette ads across Europe.

Since tobacco prices are rising, hard-line smokers have managed to get cheaper ones from neighboring countries. Some have turned to rolling tobacco and cigars.

In Ireland, a law that bans smoking in work places, bars and restaurants was postponed due to fierce opposition from the gastronomy industry.

A customer at one of London's oldest restaurants asks a waiter to stop the smokers at the next table, but the waiter snapped: " Smoking is encouraged in Berlin, to enhance the enjoyment of the meal."

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