Under the newly proposed legislation, all kinds of cigarettes are banned in Europe. According to the new rules that will be implemented by the European parliament Tuesday, 65 percent cigarette packs will contain health warnings while menthol cigarettes and other flavored versions will now be banned. Limited advertising of e-cigarettes will be allowed as these will be considered medicinal product. Slim cigarettes will continue to be sold in the market.

Many were suprised with the new ruling regarding restricting the promotion of e-cigarettes as these were initially designed to take people away from smoking tobacco, which is extremely harmful for one's health. Linda McAvan, member of the European Parliament, drafted the legislation. She cited about four thousand children in UK start smoking every week, which in turn will lead to 200,000 teenagers smoking in a calendar year. Mc Avan stressed the new rules will prevent children from being soft targets by tobacco firms.

In addition, MEPs voted against the sale of 10 cigarettes in packets, which are expected to be operational by 2016 whereas menthol cigarettes are set to be totally restricted by 2022.

However, these new rules have yet to be voted once again in the European Parliament to become a law in the European Union. Most governments reportedly are in favor of the proposed ban, which may hasten the implementation.

Meanwhile, the proposed ban has caused harsh criticism from Forest, a smokers' group. Angela Harbutt, campaigns manager of the group, has accused the ban as unfair for those who have enjoyed smoking for many years. Her accusations may fetch more supporters from British roll-up smokers who have to buy leaf tobacco packs weighing a minimum of 20g as 12.5g packs are now going to be banned in EU.