The European Commission may take Germany to court over its failure to implement a bloc-wide ban on tobacco advertising, EU health commissioner Markos Kyprianou said in an interview published Wednesday.
"I am determined to bring this case before the European Court of Justice as soon as possible and will recommend this step to the Commission," Kyprianou told the German daily Berliner Zeitung.
Kyprianou said that Germany had missed an April 1 deadline to introduce the ban, which outlaws ads for tobacco products in print media and on the Internet. Television commercials were already illegal.
It also bans the sponsorship of cross-border cultural and sporting events by tobacco companies.
"Advertising for tobacco products increases consumption, above all because it encourages children and adolescents to start smoking," Kyprianou said.
"Advertising and sponsoring glorify smoking. They create a mood in which cigarette consumption is seen as normal and acceptable."
He said Germany and Luxembourg were the only two EU countries that had not passed the required law but said that Luxembourg was in the process of doing so.
Germany, the most populous country in the European Union, has been a long-time opponent of a ban on tobacco advertising and lodged an appeal with the European Court of Justice in 2003 against the EU directive, but is still waiting for a judgment.
It argues that the EU does not have the authority to force member states to stop tobacco ads.
Kyprianou said that every member state was obliged to introduce EU directives unless they are declared to be invalid.
"Germany must therefore respect European directives or it will face action in Luxembourg" before the Court of Justice, he said.