CEEV/SpiritsEUROPE file complaints re Irish wine health warning labels

Comité Européen des Enterprises Vins (CEEV) and SpiritsEUROPE have filed formal complaints requesting that the European Commission should open an infringement procedure regarding Ireland’s new health warning labels.

This action is all the more important given that the Irish Health minister signed the controversial new cancer warning and nutrition labels regulations into law today.  CEEV’s complaint charged the Irish government with imposing disproportionate rules that were “never properly justified,” forming a barrier to trade and jeopardizing the European Union single market. SpiritsEUROPE called for transparency on the evidence that Ireland submitted to the European Commission, which remains “inaccessible to the public,” and said “deviating national rules should be paused” as the European Commission plans to present new, harmonised labelling rules soon. 

Those who attended the FIVS Meeting in Brussels from 15-16 March 2023 will recall the presentation by SpiritsEUROPE's Vincent McGovern on the EC's failure to be transparent on this very point.

Drinks Ireland is reportedly urging the Irish government against “going it alone when harmonized labels are being planned across the EU,” adding that Ireland’s “proposals are causing unnecessary tensions with important trading partners” and that “two labelling systems” are not needed.