EU Cancer Plan: green light to amendments saving Italian and European wine

Italian and European wine are safe: the EU Parliament, in its plenary session in Strasbourg, has said yes, by majority vote, to the amendments tabled by Paolo De Castro and Herbert Dorfmann to the Beca report on the EU Beating Cancer Plan, which, in fact, among other things, restore the distinction between use and abuse, removing from the report the concept of “no safe level” in the consumption of wine and alcohol, and stemming the planned recommendation of “health warnings” on labels, where messages on responsible consumption could be included instead. So the vote on the amendments, while the final vote on the Beca report, which will, in any case, result in a recommendation, in a guideline to be followed, and not directly in regulatory acts at European level, will be staged today.
“The European Parliament saves almost ten thousand years of history of wine, the first traces of which in the world have been identified in the Caucasus, while in Italy there are traces in Sicily as early as 4100 B.C.”, comments Coldiretti, with president Ettore Prandini thanking “the Italian parliamentarians for their teamwork in defending a sector that is worth 12 billion in turnover, of which 7.1 billion in exports and directly or indirectly provides employment for 1.3 million people”.
“The attempt to demonize the consumption of wine and beer through health warnings on the label already adopted for cigarettes, increased taxation and exclusion from the promotional policies of the European Union, within the framework of the “Cancer plan” proposed by the European Commission”, as requested, was rejected, together with the delegated councilor of Filiera Italia Luigi Scordamaglia, reminds Coldiretti, but as done by all the representatives of the wine chain, from Alleanza delle Cooperative Italiane to Assoenologi, from Confagricoltura to Cia/Agricoltori Italiani, from Copagri to Federvini, from Federdoc to Unione Italiana Vini - Uiv, in the various letters sent to the Italian and European institutional summits.
“Coldiretti stressed that the European Union’s commitment to protecting the health of its citizens cannot be translated into simplistic decisions that risk unfairly criminalizing individual products regardless of the quantities consumed. The nutritional balance should be sought among the different foods consumed in the daily diet and certainly not by condemning a specific product. It is also inconsistent with the support given by the measure to the Mediterranean Diet, which is considered a healthy and beneficial dietary model for the prevention of many diseases, including cancer, but which is also based on the balanced consumption of all foods, starting with a glass of wine with meals. Italy is the world’s leading producer and exporter of wine, with 70% of bottles made in Italy going to Docg, Doc and Igt with 332 wines with controlled designation of origin (Doc), 76 wines with controlled and guaranteed designation of origin (Docg), and 118 wines with typical geographical indication (Igt) recognized in Italy, and the remaining 30% for table wines. Per capita consumption in Italy is around 33 liters a year, with increasing attention being paid to quality, the history of wine, and links with the territories that also encourage Italians and foreigners to discover wineries and companies”.