Variety is the spice of life in Europe

The name ‘oscypek’ may not trip off the tongue of western Europeans but this traditional smoked cheese, made from ewe’s milk, is at the heart of an ongoing dispute between Poland and Slovakia.

The cheese is traditionally made in the Tatras mountains, which act as a natural border between Poland and Slovakia. The Polish authorities have applied for the cheese to be registered under the EU’s geographical indications scheme which protects speciality products coming from specific regions. But Slovakia insists that the cheese is also a traditional Slovakian product and does not want it registered as a Polish speciality.

Unless the two sides reach an agreement, the European Commission will have to rule on the validity of Poland’s claim to the cheese.

The case echoes one of the most high-profile disputes involving the EU’s three schemes for protecting speciality foodstuffs, that of feta cheese. The Greek producers organisation won a case for feta to be registered as protected designation of origin (PDO) in the face of counterclaims from Danish, German and French cheesemakers.

It was in 1992 that the EU launched the protection schemes for products from a certain region or made using a traditional method, as ways of allowing producers to make better use of the distinctiveness of their produce, protecting consumers from being misled by inferior foodstuffs and encouraging producers to focus on high quality products to move up the value chain. The three schemes - PDO, protected geographical origin (PGO) and traditional speciality guaranteed (TSG) - have proved a major success with more than 700 distinctive products having been registered since their inception. Registered products now range from cheeses such as mozzarella, to olive oils, Italy’s Parma ham and Spain’s jamón Serrano and even Newcastle brown ale, a traditional beer from the north-east of England, as well as numerous Belgian lambic or naturally fermented beers and Normandy and Breton ciders.

The EU has also gone on the offensive on the protection of products from specific regions, or geographical indications (GI), in the World Trade Organization. The Union had to revise its system for awarding designated status after it lost a dispute settlement panel brought by its trading partners. The EU had to agree to process and approve applications for GI status from non-EU producers rather than requiring producers to obtain the status through their own national governments.

With the negotiations on a new trade liberalisation round stalled, the EU has not been able to make headway on the GI issue. In particular, it has not yet won acceptance for the principle of reciprocity - whereby protected products which have been granted the status in the EU automatically enjoy the same sort of protection in third countries.

In February, representatives from farm organisations, foodmakers, retailers, consumer organisations and policymakers held a conference in Brussels to discuss the various attempts to ensure quality and contribute to higher incomes for producers. European Farm Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said that the proliferation of quality certification schemes often led to "burdensome administrative duplication". She urged industry and certification authorities to work together to eliminate unnecessary overlaps.

Despite the difficulties faced by producers and disputes like those over feta and oscypek, the number of successful applications and registrations suggests that the strategy of protecting distinctive foodstuffs has been a success.

The name ‘oscypek’ may not trip off the tongue of western Europeans but this traditional smoked cheese, made from ewe’s milk, is at the heart of an ongoing dispute between Poland and Slovakia.