EU TO ITALY: “ITALIAN ORIGIN LABELING LAW IS NOT APPROPRIATE” AND REQUESTS POSTPONING IT UNTIL A EU REGULATION IS ADOPTED. GALAN: “WE ARE ON THE SAME PAGE WITH THE EU ON LABELING”

The European Commission recently sent communication to Italy in which it stated the Italian legislation on origin labeling for products is “inappropriate” and requested a postponement until a regulation is adopted at Community level, confirmed Paola Testori Coggi, General Manager for Health and Consumer Protection, responding to a question on the issue.
After the approval of the Italian legislation, the Commission announced that it would seek clarification from Italy, advancing a number of doubts about the conformity of Italian legislation with EU rules. A new EU regulation could come into force after parliamentary procedures, by 2013-2014. At the last EU Council of Ministers in Brussels, Giancarlo Galan, Minister of Agriculture announced diplomatic battle for its full implementation, recalling that the EU Commissioner for Health John Dalli had called the Italian law “the way of the future, with the only defect that it is two years ahead of the rest of Europe”.