Croatia will do everything to protect its makers of Teran and Prosek wines and is intensively working on that, Agriculture Minister Tihomir Jakovina said in Brussels on Tuesday.
Regarding Teran, he mentioned the possibility of an agreement with Slovenia and Italy, a political platform to be put forward to the European Commission and Council, or legal action.
"Whether the wine will be called Istrian Teran or otherwise is more of a technical issue, but we believe that a wine with such a tradition and quality must find its place on the market also after July 1," when Croatia will join the European Union, he said.
"Our superior wine" will be in stores also after Croatia's EU accession, "and if no agreement is reached by then, we will have a legal issue" for which Croatia is preparing, Jakovina said, adding, "We will find the best solution to make up in some way for what wasn't done in 2008, 2009 and later."
Regarding Prosek, "the situation is much clearer", because Italy's Prosecco and Croatia's Prosek are completely different wines," said the minister.
He discussed the wine issue and the Kranjska sausage issue with Slovenian Agriculture Minister Dejan Zidan.
Slovenia has submitted a request to protect the sausage, to which Austria, Germany and Croatia object. A compromise has been reached with Austria and Germany but not with Croatia, so the matter is in arbitration at the European Commission.
