The European Commission is working on
wine health warnings, similar to those on cigarette packets,
highlighting the risks of excessive use, an EC spokesman said
MOnday confirming Italian fears that their multi-million wine
industry may be hit by the new labels.
Agriculture and Food Sovereignty Minister Francesco Lollobrigida
recently condemned what he called "lies" in planned Irish health
warnings on wine, beer and spirits bottles, to be introduced
ahead of the projected EU ones.
Italy has said it will appeal to the European Commission, urging
the involvement of the World Trade Organization, against
the introduction of the labels, which warn that alcohol harms
the liver and is linked to cancer.
The cigarette-like Irish warnings were tacitly given the
go-ahead
after the EC failed to block them.
"Lies seriously damage your health," said Lollobrigida,
grand-nephew of recently deceased screen diva Gina Lollobrigida,
at a Brescia forum against 'frankenfood'.
"We will support in every way not only actions of defence
against the aggression of bogus labels, but we will also make
all promotional actions to explain at all levels what are the
benefits of the Mediterranean Diet, in its complexity, and our
nation's products," he said.
He alter added that Italy will take legal action against what he
called "misleading" labels, saying "we will try all legal paths
to claim the right not only to promote wine but also to stop
some nations stigmatizing it with misleading labels".
Italy had been hoping that Ireland's move would be an isolated
one but EC spokesman Stefan De Keersmaecker said MOnday that the
EC was working on them too.
"Nobody is against wine, I think everybody likes a glass of
wine, what the Plan to Beat Cancer is about is harmful alcohol
consumption, which is a public health concern" said De
Keersmaecker when answering journalists' questions on the
labelling of alcohol with health warnings.
The EU Plan, the spokesman recalled, envisages a reduction in
harmful alcohol consumption "by at least 10 per cent by 2025".
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