Italy seeks dialogue with Ireland in wine label row

Italians have not given up on opposing Ireland’s plan to introduce cancer warnings on wine bottles, hoping to switch the Irish government representatives to milder positions by approaching them in Brussels.

Over the past weeks, Italian politicians reacted with dismay to Ireland’s draft regulation for labelling alcohol products – specifically section 12 of the Public Health (Alcohol) Act 2018 – which requires alcohol products to have health warning writings on their labels similar to the ones used for cigarettes. 

“Drinking alcohol causes liver disease” is one of them, or “There is a direct link between alcohol and fatal cancers”, or a symbol informing consumers of the danger of alcohol consumption when pregnant. 

Concerns in Italy grew when the European Commission did not issue any formal reaction to the proposed law after the formal notification, which, procedurally speaking, counts as giving tacit consent to the plan.

Speaking before MPs in the Italian upper house on Thursday (26 January), Italy’s Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida said that Rome will tighten the ranks and increase activity in Brussels to turn Dublin around. 

“Next Monday (30 January), in the context of the Agrifish Council [the monthly gathering of EU agriculture ministers] in Brussels, I will meet the Irish minister of agriculture to whom I will explain our reasons, confident that we will find points of agreement and overcome our different views,” he said.

The minister added he will give his Irish counterpart Charlie McConalogue a bottle of wine “so that he can see that we have no intention of harming his health.” 

At the beginning of the week, Italy’s Foreign Affairs Minister Antonio Tajani – also responsible for international trade – expressed similar views in favour of more dialogue with Ireland’s government representatives after addressing the issue with his Irish counterpart Micheál Martin.

“I have found a willingness to confrontation on the part of the minister, and we will put our competent agriculture ministries in touch to see if a positive solution can be found,” he told the press after the meeting of the EU foreign affairs minister in Brussels on Monday (23 January).

This is not the first time the Italian government is setting up some sort of ‘food diplomacy’ in the Brussels corridors, as they made unprecedented efforts over the past few years to block the approval at the EU level of the colour-coded nutritional labelling Nutri-score with several initiatives, included high-level events and coalition building with other member states.

Agrifood Brief: Mediterranean (back)fire

While Italians are crying victory over the controversial Nutri-Score food-labelling system, they may well be en route to becoming a victim of their own success.

But according to Italy’s Tajani, the European Commission too should intervene and bring “Ireland’s rules back in line with the rules of the Single Market.”

Last week, he addressed a letter to internal market Commissioner Thierry Breton, asking for “an intervention by the EU to protect the proper functioning of the internal market, in line with EU case law prohibiting quantitative restrictions.”

However, a Commission official told EURACTIV that, after the draft law did not receive a negative opinion from the EU executive, their role is over, and the ball is in the member states’ court.

Both procedures – under the Single Market Transparency Directive (SMTD) and under the 2011 EU regulation on food information to consumers – that might have required intervention of the Commission are now closed, the EU official said.

The opportunity to comment on draft technical regulations within three months is “a preventive tool, which aims to ensure the smooth functioning of the Internal Market and address potential issues before a law is adopted,” the official continued.

In a nutshell, it is now only up to Ireland to approve the draft law and implement the cancer warnings rules on alcohol product labels.

The Irish labelling dispute heated the Italian public opinion as the news received extensive coverage by mainstream media. While the wine sector reacted fiercely against the plan complaining about a potential billionaire loss of Italian export turnover, some health experts backed the Irish plan as the healthiest thing to do regarding alcohol labelling.

“For us, a glass of red wine, all doctors say that, is also good for the heart,” commented Italy’s Tajani. “Nobody is against wine. I love wine. I think we all love a nice glass of wine. What the Commission’s Beating cancer plan is about is avoiding harmful alcohol consumption,” echoed Commission’s spokesperson Eric Mamer on Monday.

However, the World Heart Federation officially debunked as urban legend any alleged benefit of wine for the cardiovascular system in 2022, while at the beginning of 2023, the World Health Organisation released a position stating that no level of alcohol consumption is safe for our health.

EU goes easy on alcohol in cancer plan

Alcoholic drinks have been treated differently to tobacco products in Europe’s Beating cancer plan, as overuse, not its use, will be targeted by the Commission’s initiatives.

[Edited by Alice Taylor]

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