Slovak News Back to the news
Ministry: Slovakia Will Never Give Up 'Tokaj' Designation
Thursday 10 December 2009 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, December 10 (TASR) - Slovakia hasn't given up and will never give up the geographic designation Tokaj, since Slovakia has the term as a protected designation of origin, and continues to exert this right, spokesperson for Slovakia's Agriculture Ministry Adriana Jobbikova said on Thursday.
Speaking in response to claims made by MP Zsolt Simon (Independent/Most-Hid party) that Slovakia has renounced domestic legislative support for the Tokaj area, and "we've done exactly the opposite to what Hungary has done, because Slovakia changed the Tokaj area to the Tokajska area as of September 1."
In response to Simon's offer to provide help on the issue, the spokesperson noted sarcastically that "Mr. MP (Simon) helped Slovakia enough through his activities in the past."
"At a time when the European Commission was creating its electronic register, Act no. 182 Coll. from 2005 on winegrowing and viticulture was in effect in Slovakia, with the Act containing the (Tokaj) designation. The current law also contains the Tokaj designation in several grammatical forms," said Jobbikova.
Turning to the decisive period for the registration of the Tokaj designation, the designation had been protected in Slovakia for three years already, while Hungary was only working on its legislation at that time. "This means that Slovakia has the protected designation of the Tokaj origin, and continues to have the right to use the designation," she added.
Speaking earlier in the day, Simon was reacting to Agriculture Minister Vladimir Chovan's statement that the protected wine brand Tokaj (often spelt 'Tokay' in English) has been recognised and registered by the EU Commission only for Hungary, even though the wine-producing area extends into south-east Slovakia.
The name of the wine-producing area changed in amending legislation (to Tokajska from Tokaj) as of September 1, noted Simon. Hungary, on the other hand, changed the name of its wine-producing Tokaji area to Tokaj area on the same day and the EU Commission has registered this.
Simon is now calling on Chovan to change legislation to include the 'Tokaj' area, and to approve this in Parliament via fast-track proceedings.
All rights reserved. Any publishing or further dissemination of press releases and photographs from TASR's resources without TASR's prior written approval constitutes a violation of the Copyrights Act.
