Smoking ban on terraces: who really decides (and what Hostelería de España can actually do)

The Ministry of Health drafted it. On 21 July 2026, the Council of Ministers approved it on second reading as a bill, not a mere draft.

That matters. The bill has already been sent to the Cortes Generales to start its parliamentary passage. It is no longer in the phase where it can be rewritten from scratch. Now it is negotiated through amendments, article by article.

Notice a nuance being lost in the coverage: some of the press still says “draft bill”, but the official Health Ministry note says the government approved a “bill” that “will be sent to the Cortes Generales to start its parliamentary passage”. They are not the same. A draft bill can still take substantial changes. A bill is already fixed and is fought through amendments.

And there is another fact that matters more to a venue owner than to a headline: the phase when the sector could file comments on the first draft (the public hearing) comes before this approval. It has already closed. The window in which Hostelería de España had most room to change the substance of the text shut before this summer.

From now on, the employers’ association’s room is political, not technical. José Luis Álvarez Almeida, president of Hostelería de España, has said he will contact the parties from September 2026 to seek changes.

And he arrives at that negotiation without an argument that usually carries weight in Congress: his own economic data. His main ammunition is an opinion poll (40dB, 2025) according to which 69.3% of Spaniards believe information campaigns work better than bans. That is an opinion figure, not a business-impact figure.

Opposite them, the government holds a figure that weighs differently in a public-health debate: around 50,000 deaths a year from smoking in Spain. On what is known today, there is no sign the bill will be withdrawn.

The sector closed 2025 with 280,400 hospitality venues in Spain. Congress has 350 seats, and an absolute majority is 176.

It does not matter how many bars you are if there are no parliamentary votes behind you, spread across groups. What Hostelería de España really has is not a voting bloc: it is media pressure and the ability to give arguments to MPs who already have doubts about parts of the text. That can bend specific articles. It does not decide the final vote.

This is not the first time the same rule has been touched. Law 42/2010, which banned smoking indoors, amended the same Law 28/2005 that is being changed now. It was published on 30 December 2010 and entered into force on 2 January 2011.

That law was the one that, as a side effect, turned the terrace into the smoker’s refuge and drove up terrace numbers across Spain. Almeida himself uses that as an argument: hospitality did not disappear, it adapted and, in part, grew from that change. We do not have a verified figure of our own for how long that full parliamentary process took, so we will not give you one as if we did.

What it can realistically do: slow the timetable, slip in specific exceptions (for example for unenclosed terraces, distances between tables or a longer adaptation period) and keep the issue in the media so groups with more electoral weight in tourist areas feel the pressure. That is what there is. Neither catastrophe nor victory.

1. Do not change anything on your terrace yet. The law is not in force and has no date.
2. If you belong to a regional Hostelería de España association, ask what amendments they are preparing for the passage through Congress.
3. Check the bill’s status in Congress once a month, not every week: at this stage, changes move slowly.
4. If you have regular smoking customers, start thinking (without announcing it) about a plan B: table layout, rotation, specific zones.
5. Do not pay or sign anything with anyone who promises to “get ahead” of this law. There is no service you can hire for that today, because the text can still change in Congress.

• The name of the text still varies by source: some media say “draft bill”, the official Health note says a “bill” already sent to the Cortes. We stick with the official version, but we flag it because it changes the real stage we are in.
• There is no confirmed date for final approval or entry into force. It will depend on how long Congress takes, and that is unknown today.
• It is not clear whether the employers’ talks with the parties, planned for after the summer, will win specific exceptions or whether the text will reach the final vote almost intact.