This report gives an overview of the tobacco epidemic and tobacco control policies in the countries of south-east Europe: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Romania and Serbia and Montenegro. It brings together data on tobacco consumption, smoking prevalence and the disease burden from tobacco use, reviews issues on the economics of tobacco, the tobacco industry and the policy responses developed to date to control the tobacco epidemic in south-east Europe. These data, combined with the evidence presented on the impact of tobacco control policies, can be used to underpin the development of stronger national and regional tobacco control policies.