Luxembourg, 15/12/2000 (Agence Europe) - The 22 November 1998 regulation on the naming of extra virgin olive oil or virgin olive oil, without either a protected name of origin or a protected geographical name, is valid, says the Court of Justice. A press release stipulates that, in the case of virgin olive oil originating in a Member State or the European Community - and not from a determined region benefiting from a protected name of origin - , the pressing plays a sufficiently major role in the manufacture and quality of the oils concerned for the place where the olives are pressed to be sufficient to designate their origins and that this designation provides sufficient information to the consumer. The Court states that the European Commission has broad powers of appreciation in regulating the designation of origin of olive oil. There is no general principle by which the origin of an agricultural product should be set according to the geographical area in which it is grown. Italy could not take advantage of the regulation concerning wines and grape must to come up with a rule applicable to all agricultural products, the press release goes on.
Italy was disputing the legality of this regulation which it claims misinterprets the principle of territorial belonging regarding the origin of agricultural products. It was against the idea of the definition of origin of a product being dependent on its last processing, in the name, notably, of consumer protection. It is obvious that for olive oils with a name of origin, the olives must come from the place indicated.