Brussels, 18/03/2002 (Agence Europe) - After two years of negotiations, the European Commission is about to adopt (on 30 April in all likelihood) a new regulation on the designation, denomination, presentation and protection of wine products. The document was examined at the Wine Management Committee meeting on 11 March but it was not possible to get either a majority agreement or a blocking minority so the Commission will be responsible for adopting the document. The new regulation will come into force on 1 January 2003. It simplified and brings together into a single regulation the different labelling rules for all types of wine (table wine, local wine and wines with registered designation of origin, liqueurs, sparkling and semi-sparkling wines) and musts. This will also apply to imported wine from outside the EU. It stipulates that words indicating value, like the wine variety and the year, will continue to be reserved for wines with registered designation of origin and local wines, while there will be protection of traditional names that contribute to the fame of certain vineyards. France managed to get 35 traditional words protected like "cru classé" and "vendanges tardives" (late harvest) but abstained from the vote in the Management Committee because it had not managed to have the name "cru du Médoc" accepted. Italy managed to get 49 traditional names protected, but voted against in order to be able to use the words "Vintage" and "Ruby" for Marsala (they had been reserved for port from Portugal). Italy was also not happy about having to share with Greece the use of the word "château". The Netherlands, Finland and Sweden abstained, unhappy that the year and grape variety cannot be given on the label of table wines.