Constitutive session of National Council for Coordination and Prevention of Chronic Noncommunicable Diseases in Montenegro: WHO supports harmoinisation of tax policies of Western Balkans

Podgorica, Montenegro (21 February 2018) -- The National Council for Coordination and Prevention of Chronic Noncommunicable Diseases in Montenegro assessed at today’s constitutive session that the Government of Montenegro has a clear vision and strategy for reducing chronic noncommunicable diseases and that it should continue to implement public health policies defined by the Master Plan for Health Development by 2020.

At the session, attended by the World Health Organisation Regional Director Zsuzsanna Jakab and Director of the Division of Noncommunicable Diseases and Life-course at WHO Dr Gauden Galea, a Study on Long-Term Health and Economic Effects of Implementation of Fiscal Measures was presented in order to reduce the prevalence of smoking and obesity in Montenegro.

The Council adopted recommendations from the Study which pointed to the necessity of effective implementation of the Law on Smoking Prohibition, as a strong commitment of the Government and the entire society, as well as to the need of the Ministry of Health to work more actively on the collection, processing and presentation of data on chronic noncommunicable diseases, in order to complete the study.

As it turned out, by implementing the envisaged excise politics until 1 January 2020, Montenegro should prevent the emergence of 3,397 new cases of smoking related diseases by 2035. The Study found that by reducing the prevalence of smoking to the level recommended by the WHO by 2025, Montenegro would save an additional EUR 443,100 for direct health care costs by 2025, or EUR 6.62 million by 2035.

PUBLIC RELATIONS SERVICE OF THE GOVERNMENT OF MONTENEGRO