diff --git a/src/catkin_pkg/package.py b/src/catkin_pkg/package.py
index e2c8f2d4..8805afd4 100644
--- a/src/catkin_pkg/package.py
+++ b/src/catkin_pkg/package.py
@@ -253,6 +253,9 @@ def validate(self, warnings=None):
 
         if not self.description:
             errors.append('Package description must not be empty')
+        else
+            if '\n' in self.description:
+                new_warnings.append('Package "%s" has newlines in the description')
 
         if not self.maintainers:
             errors.append("Package '{0}' must declare at least one maintainer".format(self.name))
diff --git a/src/catkin_pkg/python_setup.py b/src/catkin_pkg/python_setup.py
index c18ded8c..46b624be 100644
--- a/src/catkin_pkg/python_setup.py
+++ b/src/catkin_pkg/python_setup.py
@@ -58,7 +58,10 @@ def generate_distutils_setup(package_xml_path=os.path.curdir, **kwargs):
 
     The "description" is taken from the eponymous tag if it does not
     exceed 200 characters. If it does "description" contains the
-    truncated text while "description_long" contains the complete.
+    truncated text while "long_description" contains the complete.
+
+    The description shouldn't contain newlines, remove them automatically
+    here (with a warning in validate()) and leave them in long_description.
 
     All licenses are merged into the "license" field.
 
@@ -99,9 +102,16 @@ def generate_distutils_setup(package_xml_path=os.path.curdir, **kwargs):
         data['url'] = package.urls[0].url
 
     if len(package.description) <= 200:
-        data['description'] = package.description
+        if '\n' in package.description:
+            data['description'] = package.description.replaceAll('\n', ' ')
+            data['long_description'] = package.description
+        else:
+            data['description'] = package.description
     else:
-        data['description'] = package.description[:197] + '...'
+        if '\n' in package.description:
+            data['description'] = package.description[:197].replaceAll('\n', ' ') + '...'
+        else:
+            data['description'] = package.description[:197] + '...'
         data['long_description'] = package.description
 
     data['license'] = ', '.join(package.licenses)