The Foreign Minister in Verona as a guest of the Valpolicella Consortium: “We are used to eating and drinking in a way that has allowed us to become a flagship in Europe, that’s why millions of tourists come here every year”
“We will fight to the end against the Nutriscore, because the red dot is a way to criminalize some products to the advantage of others”. So the Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, Antonio Tajaniduring the conference “The benefits of wine” organized by Valpolicella Consortium. “The Nutri-Score – explained the minister – is a fatal blow to the principle of competition, one of the fundamental rules of the European Union is called competition, because if a product is crippled from the start it cannot compete with the others. We had won an initial battle in the European Parliament to prevent wine from being included in the document for the fight against cancer as a carcinogenic substance, but now we are facing a new offensive from Ireland. But the attack of a certain Europe is not only against wine, it is against the entire Mediterranean diet, which has been our identity, our way of life for thousands of years”.
Minister Antonio Tajani at Vinitaly
Tajani added: “It’s as if they wanted to force us not to speak Italian anymore. We are used to eating and drinking in a way that has allowed us to become a flagship in Europe and in the world as regards the agri-food system. If millions of tourists come to Italy it is also because here they find the best expression of the Mediterranean diet. We must defend this model of nutrition and reiterate that even wine, if drunk in moderation, is good for health. Anyone who claims that it is a carcinogenic substance is wrong, perhaps because they are driven by a different cultural model and perhaps also by alternative interests”.
Another battle is that “I count the Italian sounding, or the imitation of our food and wine excellence. We must go and recover the market shares that this phenomenon has stolen from us and which are ours by right. It is true that the export of Italian wine is increasing, but we must not be satisfied and work to make this quality economy grow. And we must learn to better promote our products, also in support of Rome’s candidacy as the site of Expo 2030. Finally, we are also fighting a battle against the new rules on packaging, which also concern wine: it is a regulation that does not like it and that we will try to modify”.