EU outlines bigger health warnings to stop smokers

LARGE health warnings and images may appear on cigarette packets in the EU, if new proposals from the European Commission get approval.

A draft directive outlines how three quarters of the pack would have to feature the warnings, although company branding could remain on the packet.

Phrases such as 'light' or 'low tar', as well as flavoured varieties of cigarettes would be banned, and the minimum packet size could be 20 cigarettes to ensure prices remained high.

The main target of the directive is younger smokers, however in France the number of smokers aged between 18 and 75-years-old is 30% of the population, and this figure has been slowly rising in the past few years.

The rules could become law in 2014.