IT WAS a ban that left even the politicians who issued it gasping. After 43 days without lighting up, the members of the European parliament have reversed a decision forbidding smoking in their buildings.

Despite backing smoking bans in countries from Sweden to Ireland, when it came to sticking to their own new year’s resolution MEPs proved that they lacked willpower.

A 12-member committee of MEPs, which included some smokers, decided that the ban, which had been in place at the parliament’s premises in Brussels and Strasbourg since the start of last month, was “unenforceable”. Politicians and bureaucrats from Poland, Malta and Greece were among those who helped force the reversal.

Critics and antismoking lobbyists condemned the move as an “absolute disgrace” and hypocritical when the European Union is promoting smoking bans across the continent.

Deborah Arnott, director of the antismoking charity Ash, described the latest decision as “scandalous”.

“There can be no justification for politicians to place themselves above the law and it makes a mockery of the commission’s proposals for an EU-wide smoking ban,” she said.

Smoking bans have been introduced in Scotland, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Belgium and Sweden. France joined the smoke-free club this month and smoking in enclosed public areas will be illegal in England from July 1.

The European parliament has long been a champion of the antismoking lobby, hosting events and issuing frequent statements about the dangers.

However, senior officials said the U-turn was necessary after a revolt by MEPs and staff who began smoking everywhere in protest at the restrictions.

“They are adapting the decision to reality. After January 1 people started to smoke all over the building and we had more smoke and problems for nonsmokers than before,” said one senior parliamentary source.

Nigel Farage, the UK Independence party leader, said he had been one of the MEP rebels flouting the ban. “I have been ignoring it since January 1 and I have smoked in more places than before. I don’t want to be told by PC people what I can and cannot do,” he said.

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