Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Reconciling differences

I went shopping for Mosel Riesling wine for Thanksgiving. I guess I haven't been paying attention to the German wine section for a few years. The old green bottles and distinctly German-looking labels have been abandoned in favor of post-modern packaging. I had trouble finding the Qualitätswein designations on some of the bottles. And QmP? Forget it. It's now Prädikatswein.

The changes have come about because of a combination of changes in German law and EU regulation. In the EU wines are classified as either Table Wine or Quality Wine. The German wines, in all their confusing categories, have to fit into those European types.

But each member country in the EU wants its products to be identifiable and to stand out. There are allowable ways to do that and there are prohibited ways. Consider the case of chocolate.

EU Court: No Such Thing as 'Pure Chocolate'

There is no such thing as "pure chocolate," the EU high court ruled Thursday, ending an EU-Italy food fight over chocolate labels.

The ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union voided an Italian law that recognizes some delicacies as "pure chocolate."

The court said if a product is made from 100 percent cocoa butter, that fact must be listed on the ingredients table only. It also said the EU's 1999 chocolate labeling rules make no room for a "pure chocolate" reference like the one Italy enacted in a 2003 law…

The EU labeling rules took effect in 1999 after a lively debate pitting countries like Britain — where chocolate usually contains a substitute vegetable fats — against purists like Belgium, Italy and others, where traditionalist chocolate makers use only cocoa butter.

EU spokesman Roger Waite welcomed Thursday's court ruling, saying the EU rules pursue a fair balance between Europe's two different chocolate cultures…

In 1999, all EU nations agreed "there would be something on the label making clear whether it's pure cocoa butter" or not, said Waite.

He said it was agreed to stick to the name chocolate but to let the ingredients indicate the quality of the chocolate…

The European Commission had sued Italy, saying the EU law aims to inform consumers in a neutral way about the quality of chocolate on the basis of its ingredients.