Wine Law

16 conflict between those practices and the protection of the Slovenian PDO “Teran”. The Commission was not able to adopt the contested regulation before the date of the accession of Croatia to the European Union and had to assess the existence of specific labelling practices at the time of the accession. This made it necessary for the regulation to be given retroactive effect. According to the Court, Slovenia had not established that the extent and details of the retroactive effect of the contested regulation had infringed the legitimate expectations of Slovenian wine producers. In particular, the Court found that the Commission had not led Slovenian wine producers to entertain well-founded expectations that no derogation with retroactive effect would be granted to Croatia concerning the use of the name “Teran” on the labels of wines produced on its territory. The Court fully upheld the Commission's arguments that Teran was also a grape variety in Croatia, so the exception was possible under EU rules to use the name without affecting Slovenian “Teran” wine producers, who preserve exclusive PDO rights. The Court did not follow Slovenia’s argument that the derogation from the prohibition of using grape variety names in labelling was disproportionate, since the grape variety name “Teran” can also be described by the synonym “Istrijanac”. 5.4. Aftermath In its first reaction to the judgment, Slovenian Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food stated that Slovenia was dissatisfied with the General Court’s decision and was already looking into the possibility of filing an appeal before the Court of Justice of the EU 54 . However, two months later, the Ministry announced that Slovenia would not challenge the decision of the EU General Court. The decision was made after consultation with “Teran” wine producers and based on an assessment of the likelihood of success of the appeal. According to all participants, the realisation of the initiative for cross-border protection of the designation of origin for “Teran” wine, which could not be implemented in the event of an appeal, could significantly increase the added value for winemakers in the entire Karst plateau, which extends across the border of Slovenia and Italy. Since the 54 Press release by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food of Slovenia, 9 September 2020, available in: https://www.gov.si/novice/2020-09-09-splosno-sodisce-eu-z-nepravnomocno-sodbo-zavrnilo-tozbo- slovenije/ ( last accessed on 23.12.2020).