THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,
Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 1234/2007 of 22 October 2007 establishing a common organisation of agricultural markets and on specific provisions for certain agricultural products (Single CMO Regulation)(1), and in particular Article 121, first paragraph, point (m), in conjunction with Article 4 thereof,
Having regard to Directive 2000/13/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 March 2000 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the labelling, presentation and advertising of foodstuffs(2) and in particular point (a) of the second subparagraph of Article 6(3a) thereof,
Whereas:
(1) For beverages containing more than 1,2 % by volume of alcohol, the first subparagraph of Article 6(3a) of Directive 2000/13/EC provides for the obligation to label all ingredients defined in paragraph 4(a) of that Article and listed in Annex IIIa to that Directive.
(2) The exemption from this obligation as regards wines, within the meaning of Annex XIb to Regulation (EC) No 1234/2007, placed on the market or labelled before 30 June 2012 until stocks are exhausted, as provided for in Commission Directive 2007/68/EC(3), as amended by Regulation (EU) No 1266/2010(4), will no longer apply as from 30 June 2012.
(3) It is therefore necessary to establish detailed rules for labelling these beverages, including a mention of the substances referred to in Annex IIIa to Directive 2000/13/EC and used when making the beverages, if their presence can be detected in the final product using the analysis methods referred to in Article 120g of Regulation (EC) No 1234/2007 and if they consequently must be considered ingredients within the meaning of Article 6(4)(a) of Directive 2000/13/EC.
(4) In a multilingual context, labelling products using pictograms may improve the readability of the information provided to consumers and offer better guarantees for consumers. Therefore operators should be given the possibility of complementing written information with pictograms.
(5) Commission Regulation (EC) No 607/2009(5) should therefore be amended accordingly.
(6) In order to prevent the new rules from affecting the marketing of products that are already labelled, it should be specified that they apply only to wines made completely or partially from grapes harvested in 2012 or later and labelled after 30 June 2012.
(7) The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Management Committee for the Common Organisation of Agricultural Markets,
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: