Commission Regulation (EC) No 1829/2002 of 14 October 2002 amending the Annex to Regulation (EC) No 1107/96 with regard to the name "Feta" (Text with EEA relevance)

• Published date: 15 October 2002
• Subject Matter: Foodstuffs,Consumer protection
• Official Gazette Publication: Official Journal of the European Communities, L 277, 15 October 2002

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Commission Regulation (EC) No 1829/2002 of 14 October 2002 amending the Annex to Regulation (EC) No 1107/96 with regard to the name "Feta" (Text with EEA relevance)

Official Journal L 277 , 15/10/2002 P. 0010 - 0014

Commission Regulation (EC) No 1829/2002

of 14 October 2002

amending the Annex to Regulation (EC) No 1107/96 with regard to the name "Feta"

(Text with EEA relevance)

THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community,

Having regard to Council Regulation (EEC) No 2081/92 of 14 July 1992 on the protection of geographical indications and designations of origin for agricultural products and foodstuffs(1), as last amended by Commission Regulation (EC) No 2796/2000(2), and in particular Article 17 thereof,

Whereas:

(1) Under Article 17(1) of Regulation (EEC) No 2081/92, on 21 January 1994 the Greek authorities sent the Commission an application for the registration of the name "Feta" for a cheese.

(2) The name "Feta" was registered as a protected designation of origin under Commission Regulation (EC) No 1107/96 of 12 June 1996 on the registration of geographical indications and designations of origin under the procedure laid down in Article 17 of Council Regulation (EEC) No 2081/92(3), as last amended by Commission Regulation (EC) No 546/2002(4).

(3) The Kingdom of Denmark, the Federal Republic of Germany and the French Republic subsequently brought an action for that registration to be annulled under Article 230 of the Treaty.

(4) In its judgment of 16 March 1999 on Joined Cases C-289/96, C-293/96 and C-299/96, the Court of Justice partly annulled Regulation (EC) No 1107/96 in so far as it registered the name "Feta" as a protected designation of origin. The Court considered that the Commission "did not take due account of all the factors which the third indent of Article 3(1) of the basic Regulation required it to take into consideration", emphasising in particular that the Commission had paid insufficient attention to the actual situation in the Member States.

(5) Commission Regulation (EC) No 1070/1999 amending the Annex to Regulation (EC) No 1107/96(5) accordingly deleted the name "Feta" from the said Annex and from the register of protected designations of origin and geographical indications.

(6) Next, on 15 October 1999, the Commission sent each of the Member States a detailed questionnaire intended to provide an exhaustive updated picture of the situation in all the Member States with regard to the production and consumption of "Feta" and the knowledge of the term professed by Community consumers.

(7) With regard to the production of "Feta" cheese, the Member States were asked to describe the situation as regards the following factors: the existence of national rules or specific codified practices, the conditions in which production was commenced (in particular the objectives sought, whether the initiative was private or public, the markets and the consumer profile targeted), the quantities produced each year, the final destination of the product, and the exact names of the relevant trademarks used.

(8) With regard to the consumption of "Feta" cheese, the Member States were asked to describe the situation as regards the following factors: the existence of rules on the marketing of this cheese, the quantities consumed each year, the geographic origin of the cheese consumed, and the specific labels present on the market.

(9) With regard to consumer knowledge of the name "Feta", the Member States were asked to describe the situation as regards the following factors: definitions of this term, in particular in general works such as dictionaries and encyclopaedias, relevant demoscopic studies or surveys, and any other additional information.

(10) The Commission summarised the information received overall and by Member State, and the Member States subsequently made a number of corrections and amendments.

(11) The information shows that in 12 Member States the production of "Feta" cheese is not governed by specific rules laying down precise definitions of quality, production methods or, where applicable, geographical areas of production. In Greece, production practices for "Feta" cheese have been codified in increasingly specific terms since 1935, and the definition of the geographical area of production, traditionally based on consistent and equitable practices, was protected in 1988. Legislation on the quality specifications to be complied with in producing "Feta" cheese has existed in Denmark since 1963 and was in force in the Netherlands between 1981 and 1998. It should also be noted that the term "Feta" appears in Community rules on export refunds for milk and milk products and the combined customs nomenclature. These rules relate to customs matters alone and seek neither to interpret consumer opinion nor regulate industrial property rights, nor do they have any bearing on the name under which the cheese concerned is actually marketed, which depends exclusively on considerations related to consumer expectations in the various countries of destination concerned.

(12) Production of "Feta" cheese, as defined in the combined customs nomenclature, is non-existent in Luxembourg and Portugal. It is, or has been, statistically and economically marginal or sporadic in nine other Member States: Italy, Belgium, Finland, Austria, Ireland, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Spain.

(13) However, production of "Feta" cheese has been found to be substantial in four Member States. Greece has been producing "Feta" cheese since ancient times, almost...