Here’s more insanity in the European Union.

Companies in the European Union may legally refuse to hire smokers because EU anti-discrimination laws do not protect them, the European Commission said.

And here’s the bureaucratic explanation justifying the insanity.

“The commission is not against recruiting workers who smoke, but we have to stick to European legislation. Our anti-discrimination legislation for the workplace covers four areas - age, disability, religion or belief and sexual orientation. Then in general the rules cover gender and race, and that’s it,” said von Schnurbein, spokeswoman for Employment and Social Affairs Commissioner Vladimir Spidla. [..] “Smokers are not included in that list. There are a lot of things this doesn’t cover - you could say I don’t want an alcoholic working for me, whatever,” she said.