Brussels, 4 December 2017 – the Smoke Free Partnership, the Belgian Foundation against Cancer and the Romanian Association for Health Promotion have signed a letter, written with the support of over 35 other tobacco control and public health organisations, urging the Minister of Culture of Romania to reconsider the involvement of the tobacco industry in the organisation of the country’s participation to Europalia 2019.  

The Smoke Free Partnership, the Belgian Foundation against Cancer and the Romanian Association for Health Promotion, took action to raise concerns regarding the appointment of a tobacco industry representative to Romania’s steering Committee for Europalia 2019.

The letter urged the Minister of Culture of Romania, to reconsider the decision to appoint a representative of a tobacco company to the “honorary role” as Romania’s Vice-Commissioner in the preparatory working group for Romania’s participation in the Europalia Cultural Festival in 2019. The decision is incompatible with Romania’s obligations under the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control as well as EU legislation, and raises concerns regarding tobacco industry interference. Advertising, promotion and sponsorship of cultural events such as this are in fact one of the key tools of the tobacco industry for normalising tobacco consumption with younger generations and for building political goodwill used to interfere in policy-making.