WRITTEN QUESTION No. 3201/97 by Cristiana MUSCARDINI to the Commission. Extra virgin olive oil
Date: 1997-10-16
Institutions: European Parliament, MUSCARDINI
Subjects: Italy, consumer protection, designation of origin, import, olive oil, third country, trade regulations

25. 5. 98

EN

Official Journal of the European Communities

C 158/57

› 

for the purposes of recording prices on the Community(cid:146)s representative markets, the definition is either for
male calves aged from 8 days to 3 weeks (Article 8 of Commission Regulation (EEC)No 610/77 of 18 March
1977 on the determination of prices of adult bovine animals on representative Community markets and the
survey of prices of certain other cattle in the Community (4)) or lean cattle aged on average between 6 and
12 months, of male sex, of an average weight equal to or lower than 300 kg live weight (Article 9 of the same
Regulation as above), or calves for slaughtering reared exclusively on milk or preparations containing milk
and slaughtered at up to six months of age (Article 10 of the same Regulation).

In view of the different purposes served, the Commission does not plan to draw up a single definition of

2.
(cid:145)calves(cid:146) which could be used in all the above cases.

(1)  OJ L 148, 28.6.1968.
(2)  OJ L 340, 11.12.1991.
(3)  OJ L 132, 29.5.1993.
(4)  OJ L 77, 25.3.1977.

(98/C 158/70)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3201/97

by Cristiana Muscardini (NI) to the Commission

(16 October 1997)

Subject: Extra virgin olive oil

The Italian national consumers(cid:146) union has protested against the planned amendment of the international rules
governing the marketing of olive oil, shortly to be incorporated into a Community regulation.

1.
Is it true that, as a result of this amendment, any extra virgin oil imported into Italy from abroad may be
called (cid:145)Italian(cid:146) provided it is merely filtered in Italy and supplemented with a very small amount of national
virgin oil?

If so, does the Commission not consider that this is a case of (cid:145)legalized fraud(cid:146) since consumers will not

2.
know what area the purchased virgin oil comes from?

3. Will the principle of controlled origin applied to other products, such as wine and cheese, no longer be
applied to olive oil?

4. What action does the Commission intend to take to guarantee transparency and designation of origin for oil,
and prevent murky and unacceptable practices from being legalized?

(98/C 158/71)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-3383/97

by Riccardo Garosci (UPE), Livio Filippi (PPE), Giacomo Santini (UPE),
Danilo Poggiolini (PPE), Antonio Trizza (NI), Monica Baldi (UPE)
and Luisa Todini (UPE) to the Commission

(23 October 1997)

Subject: Labelling of olive-oil and proposed IOOC amendment

Will  the  Commission  make  representations  to  the  governing  bodies  of  the  IOOC  (International  Olive  Oil
Council) regarding the proposal to amend the rules on the labelling of olive-oil? When it holds its next meeting in
Turkey on 18 November 1997, the international organization is apparently planning to change the definition of
(cid:145)country of production(cid:146) for labelling purposes.

In practice, under the new proposal, imported olive-oil, irrespective of its origin, could be called by the name of
the importing country if it had merely been processed (for example filtered) there and a small percentage of oil
produced in that country had been added to it.

This provision would obviously run counter to the idea of safeguards for consumers and olive-oil producers in
the EU designed to guarantee clear information and a high standard of quality.