About 200 people on Sunday protested in downtown Sofia against the ban on smoking in all enclosed public spaces, which comes into force on 1 June, reports Novinite news agency.

Organisers say the initiative is aimed at raising awareness of smokers' rights and the difficulties that small and medium-sized enterprises will face once the ban is introduced in cafes, bars and restaurants, regardless of size.
The Chairman of the Bulgarian Association of Hotel and Restaurant Owners, Blagoy Ragin, said turnover of Bulgarian food and drink establishments will go down by BGN 300 million (EUR 153 million) after the full smoking ban becomes effective and that, as result of these losses, 20 per cent of Bulgarian restaurants, casinos, and night clubs will be bankrupt by March 2013. "We want to have this ban postponed by several years, until the economy recovers," Ragin said.
Previously, Tihomir Bezlov, an expert from the Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD), had warned that the smoking ban would lead to an even greater increase in cigarette smuggling and weaken the flow of revenues to the budget. The illegal market already accounts for 30 to 40 per cent of all cigarettes sold, according to CSD.
Bezlov pointed out that taxes from tobacco products make up about 10 per cent of budget revenues – compared with about 1.4 per ent in many other EU countries, which makes the country's finances highly dependent on that market.
The full smoking ban in closed public spaces was to be enforced in 2010, but was postponed by the government with the argument that it might harm the country's tourism. A partial smoking ban, introduced in 2005, was widely ignored. (pi)