Introduction:
One important pillar of comprehensive tobacco control actions and policies is represented by smoking prevention and cessation among youth. Hence, the objectives of this paper are to present the strengths, weaknesses as well as threats and opportunities for improving this field in Romania.

Methods:
The paper presents research activities, development, implementation and evaluation of educational programs as well as legislative and advocacy measures for smoking prevention and cessation among Romanian youth, giving a special attention to identifying factors such as national and international cooperation which enabled several activities and might be useful for diffusion of educational programs as well as sustainable tobacco control policies.

Results:
In the last years in Romania there were developed several research activities assessing prevalence of use of tobacco and electronic cigarettes and factors which influence these behaviors among different population groups of youth, including the Global Youth Tobacco Survey and Health Behaviour in School aged Children. At the same time, different national and international funding and partnerships enabled the development, implementation and evaluation of smoking prevention and cessation programs for youth as well as legislative measures with impact on both active and passive smoking among this target group. The challenges rely on continuing, diffusion and enhancing these activities and measures, as well as in developing educational programs for prevention of electronic cigarette use, since it is a reality faced by the Romanian youth.

Conclusions:
The gained expertise, experience, tools and established partnerships should be used in order to enhance tobacco control targeting young people in Romania in order to face old and new challenges in this field.