Discussions on aligning the spirit drinks legislation (Regulation 110/2008) are picking up speed, with both Parliament and Member States actively engaged on the dossier. The spirit sector has appreciated a constructive dialogue as the deliberations evolve.
The Commission’s proposal introduced a large number of changes, even if the broad structure of the law remained constant. Although much of the new wording did not alter the basic rules, more significant innovations in a number of areas brought the potential to create serious difficulties for producers and consumers. Some of the key elements include: retaining the current provision to allow translations of names when these are required by third countries; removing the proposed new facility to use spirit names to describe flavours; maintaining current rules on place of manufacture to ensure the EU’s most valuable geographical indication spirits are not undermined; and ensuring that national rules defining spirits are preserved. These and other issues require careful consideration and appropriate adjustments which will thereby further improve the Commission’s proposal. We have appreciated legislators’ readiness to discuss these issues.
It is worth recalling that, despite the many changes, the Commission’s proposal did not need an impact assessment because, broadly, the structure and underlying aims were the same. A similar assessment is driving the industry’s perspective in its discussions with regulators: the rules currently in force work well and do not require any radical departures. Indeed in many instances, the sort of adjustments to the Commission’s proposal which the industry would like to see simply re-introduce the language found in the current regulation. This being so, the old adage applies: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
