EU: ITALY’S BATTLE FOR PURE CHOCOLATE

Italy has declared a “bipartisan war for chocolate” against the European Union, a battle to defend the purity of artisan Italian chocolate. The Italian Chamber of Deputies recently rejected by the unanimous consensus of parliament, an article of an EU law that was introduced to the Senate in a previous meeting which would adapt Italian legislation to that of the EU in regards to chocolate.
The article introduced to the Senate would have begun a procedure of open infringement on behalf of the European Union on an Italian law regarding the label wording for “pure chocolate”, which can currently be printed only on chocolate based products that contain no other fats besides pure cocoa butter, under a law created in 2003. This norm, according to Brussels, is incompatible with member states legislation in regards to labeling materials and food product presentation.
EU Minister Giorgio La Malfa made an appeal to Italian political forces not to eliminate the Commission’s article from the text: “European laws must be obeyed. If this norm is left out – stated the Minister – then Italy will be condemned by the EU Courts, and these days sentences are very costly”. But the appeal by La Malfa fell on deaf ears. After an hour of closed door debates, all parliamentary groups agreed to undersign the amendment rejecting the article introduced by the Senate. In the end, the amendment passed with just one contrary vote, by la Malfa.