Italy and Slovenia awaits for European Commission to settle the balsamic vinegar dispute

Italy is up in arms, trying to defend the world-famous balsamic vinegar of Modena from an attempt to ‘standardise’ its production made by Slovenia, and the European Commission appears to have until 3 March to settle the issue. Slovenia notified the European Commission in early December of some national draft rules on the quality of vinegar and diluted acetic acid. The main goal of this national technical standard is to ensure that any hashing of wine vinegar can be sold as balsamic vinegar, which is recognised as an Italian food speciality. The European Union has granted balsamic vinegar produced in the Italian city of Modena the protected designation of origin (PDO) and the protected geographical indications (PDI) statuses against counterfeits. However, a 2019 ruling from the European Court of Justice (ECJ) stated that such protection is not extended to its non-geographical components, namely ‘aceto’ and ‘balsamico’. The Luxembourg-based court was asked to give a ruling upon ...