In Europe, the attacks of some European members against Italian PDOs do not stop. After Croatia’s attempts to undermine the Prosecco DOC, and after Slovenia’s challenge to balsamic vinegar of Modena, now Cyprus is also added to the list: just as Ljubljana did a year ago, on 22 June Nicosia notified the European Commission changes its food laws which introduces the possibility of calling a mixture of vinegar, grape must and sugar produced by local companies’ “balsamic class”.
The Consortium for the protection of Modena vinegar, which learned of the notification only in these days, arose: “An unprecedented attack is underway by European countries, which are trying to appropriate the name and exploit the success of the original Modena product IGP known and consumed all over the world ». As in the case of Slovenia, Italy can oppose Brussels. But the time available is very little: the three months to present it expire on 22 September, a very short time to prepare the necessary documents. Precisely for this reason, the Protection Consortium considers extremely serious the fact that the Ministry of Agriculture only communicated on 7 September when it took place in the European offices, “indeed it has not yet formally communicated it, given that the discovery by the Consortium was completely random “, writes the consortium in a statement.” Between June and July last – says Mariangela Grosoli, president of the consortium – the Slovenian case was in the media, on everyone’s lips and on the government table for the procedure of infringement finally authorized by the Council of Ministers: for this reason it is regrettable to verify the lack of attention given by the MIipaaf offices to this case which is very similar to the Slovenian one ”.
The case of balsamic vinegar is relevant not only because it is necessary to defend a product that today has a market value of one billion euros and employs thousands of workers, but because it risks becoming the Trojan horse with which to dismantle the entire system of Geographical indications of the PDOs that each year collect 17 billion euros and have made Made in Italy famous in the world.