The defence of Parmesan cheese against cheap imitations in the European Court of Justice will become a landmark decision for the EU protected designation of origin (PDO) system, Italian farmers said on Thursday.
Italian Farmers Federation (CIA) said the European Commission's decision to sue Germany for allowing its producers to sell a non-Italian cheese under the name 'Parmesan' defended the principle behind the system.
Proceedings opened in Brussels on Tuesday, five years after the ECJ first held that the names Parmigiano Reggiano and Parmesan were synonymous, and that cheese sold under the latter name had to comply with EU regulations for the former.
"What's at stake here is the safeguarding of a principle - the defence of PDOs - which is an inalienable value for Italian and European agriculture," CIA said.
The protection of Parmesan is fundamental for Italy because it spearheads a campaign to protect all its PDOs, which form part of its culture and tradition, the federation said.
Germany insists that 'parmesan' has become a generic term for grated hard cheese over the centuries, entirely unrelated to the specific Italian product.
CIA expressed "surprise and concern" over Germany's stance.
The EU protected designation of origin (PDO) system means that only cheese made in Italy's Parma region and using specified production techniques can be labelled Parmigiano Reggiano, or Parmesan, as it is known abroad.
THE COMMISSION'S ARGUMENT IN DEFENCE OF THE PDO SYSTEM.
But the Commission says if that were the case, then any cheese could be labelled as Parmesan, undermining the entire PDO system.
It wants the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to fine Berlin and order it to enforce the labelling system across Germany.
The EC opened infraction proceedings against Germany, filing a complaint at the ECJ in 2004.
The court's advocate general, Jan Mazak, whom the ECJ follows in the vast majority of cases, will deliver his advisory opinion by the end of June.
The ECJ is expected to reach its decision soon after.
Italy's Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium is optimistic that the court will decide in its favour.
Consortium director Bertozzi pointed out that "all EU governments who have filed representations in the case, including the Commission, have said that 'Parmesan' is a faithful translation of Parmigiano Reggiano".
Bertozzi added that a ruling in favour of Germany would open the floodgates to misleading advertising and deal a blow to consumer protection.
The Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium has become increasingly assertive in defending its product's name at an international level.
It scored a key legal victory five years ago when it managed to stop an American cheesemaker from using the Parmigiano tag on its grated cheese.
This was the fourth time in ten years that a US company had been forced to remove the label from its product.
In 2003, Italy lobbied to have cloned American Parmesan denied permission to export worldwide and the US product later failed in its bid to be admitted to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization's Codex Alimentarius.
Parmesan is one of the world's oldest cheeses. It traces its origins to the 12th century.
