By Timothy S. Donahue

Top Takeaways:

• Expanded restrictions: Spain plans to ban smoking on outdoor restaurant and bar terraces and to extend smoke-free rules to additional public spaces.
• Product parity: E-cigarettes, nicotine pouches, heated tobacco products, hookahs, and herbal inhalation products would face the same public-use restrictions as conventional cigarettes.
• Political hurdle: The legislation still requires parliamentary approval, and opposition lawmakers are seeking protections for the hospitality sector.

Spain is proposing one of Europe’s broadest tobacco-control expansions, extending smoke-free rules to outdoor hospitality venues and subjecting vapes, nicotine pouches and other alternative nicotine products to the same public-use restrictions as combustible cigarettes.

Health Minister Monica Garcia unveiled draft legislation Tuesday that would prohibit smoking on outdoor terraces at bars and restaurants and significantly expand the country’s list of smoke-free public spaces.

For the first time, the proposal would apply the same public-use restrictions to e-cigarettes, nicotine pouches, heated tobacco products, hookahs, and herbal inhalation products, regardless of whether they contain nicotine.

“The times have changed, new products have appeared and there are new public health needs,” Garcia said while announcing the proposal.

Under the legislation, smoking would also be prohibited within 15 meters (49 feet) of entrances to public buildings, schools, healthcare facilities, and playgrounds. Additional smoke-free areas would include universities, public swimming pools, sports facilities, work vehicles, and venues hosting public events.

The measure would restore and expand restrictions that temporarily prohibited smoking on outdoor terraces during the COVID-19 pandemic, restrictions that were lifted before those rules were lifted.

The proposal now moves to Spain’s fragmented parliament, where its passage is uncertain. The opposition People’s Party has said it could support the legislation if it includes designated smoking areas and safeguards for the country’s hospitality industry.

Spain’s hospitality sector has already voiced opposition. The country’s principal hospitality association argued that the terrace ban would offer limited public health benefits and could instead prompt smokers to move indoors, increasing secondhand smoke exposure.

Garcia said tobacco use remains a major public health challenge, citing government estimates that smoking contributes to about 50,000 deaths annually in Spain and is a risk factor linked to about 30% of cancer cases.

If enacted, the legislation would place Spain among a growing number of European countries tightening restrictions on combustible tobacco and next-generation nicotine products.