Brussels, 20/02/2004 (Agence Europe) - In the face of stiff opposition from Italy and a series of farming organisations, the European Commission is expected to approve a new regulation on Monday giving third countries more leeway in the labelling of their wines to the detriment of EU wine producers, At the Agriculture Council the next day, Italy will have the opportunity to express its disapproval of the text, which it sees as enabling wine producers from outside the EU to use (under certain conditions) denominations reserved in the past for wines produced in Europe.
The regulation is far from unanimously endorsed, having been rejected by Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Greece and Luxembourg at the management committee meeting on 10 February. The Italian agriculture minister Giovanni Alemanno has written to Romano Prodi and Commissioner Mario Monti, calling on them to voice opposition to the adoption of the regulation and spelling out to them the negative consequences of the regulation for Italian wine producers. The labelling regulation will come into force retroactively on 1 February, but EU wine producers will have a transition period of up until 15 March to familiarise themselves with the new measures.
According to COPA (the committee of EU farming organisations) and COGECA (the general committee for agricultural cooperation), the regulation weakens the protection of all traditional EU wine types, like tawny, vintage, Brunello or Amarone. The two organisations note that in the context of tough bilateral negotiations with some third countries over wine, the regulation highlights the lack of coherence in the Commission's strategy of allowing third countries to use traditional wording without calling for compensation. COPA and COGECA point out that a huge number of issues have not been settled with regard to the protection of European geographical indications in third countries. The United States, for example, see 14 European geograph8cal indications as 'semi-generic', the farm lobby groups explain. The Commission says that the regulation aims to regulate the situation at the international level and avert complaints to the WTO. At the end of last week, the European Commission transmitted the details of the regulation to the WTO.