Balsamic Vinegar of Modena, a jewel of Italian food and wine culture, invented by the Benedictine monk Donizone, who lived between the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the condiment that prompted Emperor Henry II to write to the Marquis Bonifacio di Canossa, Matilda's father, “because he wanted that vinegar which had been praised and which was made in the fortress of Canossa”, he does not touch: it is Italian and no one can think of producing it in another country and calling it that. This was clarified by the EU Agriculture Commissioner after the European Court ruling with a clear and explicit clarification note.
“The geographical indication 'Aceto Balsamico di Modena Igp' is not only protected as a whole, but also against any possible evocation that could mislead European consumers. In short, there cannot be a balsamic vinegar 'made in Germany', or in any other EU country that wants to usurp our Italian excellence”. It is the European Commissioner for Agriculture himself, Janusz Wojciechowski - solicited in a letter by Paolo De Castro, S&D coordinator in the Agriculture Committee of the European Parliament - to shed light on the issue, responding to the request for clarification on last December's ruling by the Court of Justice European Union, which defined the generic term 'balsamic'.
"Thus - explains the PD MEP - after weeks of work and informal talks conducted in close collaboration with the protection consortium, we can send an important and reassuring signal to our producers of Balsamic Vinegar of Modena Igp, but also to the entire supply chain of Italian agri-food excellence. In effect, this fundamental clarification by the European Commission eliminates all ambiguity on attempts to evoke Geographical Indications, giving strength to the entire system of European quality productions”.
"In the light of the clarifications received from the EU commissioner - underlines De Castro - we can say that the Court's sentence on the Balsamic Vinegar of Modena refers solely to the question of the German judges on the generality of the term balsamic, without referring to our food excellence, whose figurative and verbal components remain protected by the European legislation against evocations of 2012". “Now – as Wojciechowski writes – the assessment of specific cases of products that evoke Balsamic Vinegar of Modena PGI falls within the competence of national judges who can submit, if necessary, a request for a preliminary ruling to the European Court”.
"In short - concludes De Castro - we managed to put a firm point on this criticality, strengthening the protections for a sector that is linked to a great territorial tradition, creates thousands of jobs, and represents for the economy of Emilia Romagna worth more than one billion euros. This result gives us even more strength to continue to defend our rights and strengthen the role of the Consortia, especially in the protection of quality".
Therefore there are no more margins of doubt on the fact that the Balsamic Vinegar of Modena, flagship of Made in Italy in the world, is protected against all those products which - by using a part of the protected denomination on the label or in the presentation, or words or signs capable of establishing a visual or phonetic similarity or a conceptual proximity to the registered denomination - push the consumer to assume the protected product as a reference image. It is therefore forbidden to use commercial tricks which, at the time of purchase, can induce the consumer to imagine any type of reference to Balsamic Vinegar of Modena PGI. The protection of the consumer is rightly emphasized who, let us not forget, is the real victim of counterfeits, imitations and evocations which are still too often, in Italy and abroad, used as an (unfair) competitive strategy to try to compete with quality of authentic PDO and PGI products.
