The European Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture was divided in a debate, on Tuesday 26 October, over the Croatian application, published in the EU’s Official Journal, aimed at protecting the traditional term ‘Prošek’, a dessert wine.
The European Commission appeared to defend the Croatian request in the debate, much to the dismay of Italian MEPs, who fear that this will cause confusion with the Italian ‘Prosecco’, a dry, sparkling wine with a PDO.
The Commission explained that this Croatian request for protection of the ‘Prošek’ will be made after a two-month period, open for submitting possible objections.
The Commission representative acknowledged the similar sound or “homonymy” with the term ‘Prosecco’, even though the spelling is different.
“But this in itself is not sufficient to reject an application”, the Commission said. “We have to respect the law, which refers to the confusion that could arise from the different terms”.
However, the Commission recalled that the products are totally different and even complementary. Croatia would like ‘Prošek’ to be a ‘still’ sweet wine (without bubbles). The Commission tried to reassure the Italians by pointing out that ‘Prošek’ “will not be approved as a protected designation for sparkling wines”, unlike ‘Prosecco’ which can be produced as both sparkling and still wine.
Herbert Dorfmann (EPP, Italy), Paolo de Castro (S&D, Italy) and Maria Bizzotto (ID, Italy), among others, asked the Commission to reject the Croatian request. There is a risk of confusion with the world’s best-selling Italian wine, say the MEPs. They protested against Croatia’s attempt to imitate the name ‘Prosecco’ to boost sales. “The reference speaks for itself”, said Mr De Castro, recalling that problems of similarity that exist in trade agreements with China and Australia.
Martin Hlaváček (Renew Europe, Czech Republic), however, said that these were two different products.
Ladislav Ilčić (ECR, Croatia) and Tonino Picula (S&D, Croatia) defended the Croatian request, on the one hand because ‘Prošek’ has been produced for centuries and, on the other, because the name has neither the same origin nor the same taste nor the same price nor the same grape variety.
For Irène Tolleret (Renew Europe, France), ‘Prošek’ deserves a name, but this name should not weaken an existing one that is already protected in trade agreements.
Link to the application published in the Official Journal of the EU: https://bit.ly/3BnY6yJ (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)