Federvini asks the EU authorities to start the infringement procedure against Ireland. The Italian wine federation intends to send a formal complaint to the European Commission regarding the incompatibility with Community law of the legislation on the labeling of wines and spirits proposed by Ireland, the so-called health warnings which warn consumers of a possible link between alcohol and cancerous diseases.
The Irish measures – writes the association – also represent a “disproportionate and unjustified” impediment to the free circulation of goods within the Community territory, in open contrast to the provisions of articles 34 and 36 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. A substantial threat to the single market brought about by a unilateral choice by Ireland which risks creating a trade barrier.
Federvini’s complaint comes one week after the deadline for submitting comments on Irish legislation to the WTO, which saw countries such as Australia, Canada, Cuba, Mexico, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the Dominican Republic and the United States your own observations. The critical aspects of incompatibility with European legislation had already been highlighted by a long list of EU Member States: in addition to Italy, France, Germany, Spain, Denmark, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Greece, Poland and Latvia.
“By not distinguishing de facto between abuse and responsible consumption of alcohol – explains the president of Federvini, Micaela Pallini – the Irish legislation risks not informing consumers correctly and damaging our production sector on a European scale, further aggravating the burdens on the manufacturing companies which should adopt ad hoc labeling for the Irish market. The formal complaint that we will send to the European Commission represents an obligatory choice, in the face of the inaction of the Community authorities who had also recently expressed perplexity about the admissibility of Ireland’s proposal».