Here’s the latest status as of early February 2026 on whether the terrace smoking ban has become law in Spain:
📌 It has not yet been passed into law
What has happened is that the Spanish Government (Consejo de Ministros) approved the draft bill to modify the tobacco law (Anteproyecto de Ley que modifica la Ley 28/2005) with expanded smoke-free areas, including bar and restaurant terraces. That draft is still part of the legislative process — it must go through consultation, debate and votes in the Cortes Generales (Parliament) before it becomes an official law published in the BOE. Media reports from late 2025 confirm the draft’s approval by ministers and outline its expanded smoking bans, but they consistently note that the bill still needs parliamentary approval to become binding.
📍 What this means right now
At the moment — February 2026 — smoking in terraces is not yet prohibited nationwide by a new enacted law on the basis of that draft. The existing tobacco law (Ley 28/2005, still in force) hasn’t changed yet until Parliament passes and the law is published in the BOE. The draft’s inclusion of outdoor terrace bans and expanded smoke-free outdoor spaces is part of the process, but not enforceable until it becomes law.
🗓️ Timeline uncertainty
Draft approval by the Government (i.e., Council of Ministers) — done in Sept 2025. Next steps: legal consultations and parliamentary debate → possible amendments → voting in Congress and Senate → publication in the BOE. Only after BOE publication does it take legal effect, typically 20 days later (as the draft text itself says), once finalised.
In short: the broad direction is clear — Spain is moving toward banning smoking on terraces — but it hasn’t officially happened yet. No final law text has been published in the BOE as of now.