Page 13 - bne_newspaper_July_21_2017

Southeast Europe
July 21, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 13
Slovenia to sue European Commission over Teran wine name decision
bne IntelliNews
Slovenia will file a lawsuit against the European Commission’s decision to allow Croatian producers to use the Slovenian-protected Teran wine name, Minister of Agriculture Dejan Zidan announced on July 18.
Slovenia previously believed it had won the so- called “Teran battle” with Croatia in April 2013, when the European Commission decided that Croatian producers could not sell wine under the Teran name. However, the Teran wine dispute has continued, after in January the EC launched procedures to allow Croatian wine producers to use the name under specific conditions, despite loud protests from Slovenia.
Teran wine is mainly produced from red wine grapes grown on the Slovenian Karst plateau,
but vineyards in Croatia have also long produced wine under the Teran name, while "Terrano" wine is produced in Italy, which also borders Slovenia.
On May 19, the European Commission adopted a delegated act specifying the conditions under which the name of the Teran wine grape variety may appear on wine labels of the Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) Hrvatska Istra, a Croatian wine. According to the EC, Teran wine is and will remain a Slovenian PDO registered in the EU, meaning that under existing EU rules, it
is protected against any commercial use of the name by other wines that do not respect the rules set out in the technical file of the PDO Teran of the Slovenian Karst region.
According to Zidan, the lawsuit in the Teran wine dispute will likely be filed by end-August even though the deadline is September 19.
“The possibility of marking the vine variety Teran, which is identical to the protected designation of origin Teran for wines produced in Karst in Slovenia, is an interference with existing protection that leads to misleading consumers and thus causes a lot of economic damage due to the possible decline in sales and the devaluation of the existing protected designation of origin,” Zidan said at the ministerial meeting of the EU Agriculture and Fishery Council in Brussels on July 18, said the statement posted on the ministry’s website.
According to Zidan the case shows that there is no protected designation of origin of the wine and that the Commission may, in a similar (non- transparent) manner, also reach all other exist- ing protected designations of origin of the wine.
“This opens Pandora's box,” Zidan concluded.