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Denmark loses ‘feta war’ with EU

Denmark has lost a case at the European Court of Justice over its farmers exporting cheese outside the EU labelled feta, a protected designation of origin for Greek cheese.

Published: 14 July 2022 15:31 CEST

Denmark has lost its fight with the EU over the sale of feta cheese.

Denmark has lost its fight with the EU over the sale of feta cheese. Pictured is a Greek salad. Photo by Loes Klinker on Unsplash

Feta has been a protected designation at European level since 2002 and in 2005 survived a challenge from Denmark and Germany. But Denmark continued to let its producers label their products feta when they exported outside the 27-nation bloc.

That prompted the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, to turn, with Greek support, to the court.

“By failing to stop the use of the designation ‘feta’ for cheese intended for export to third countries, Denmark has failed to fulfil its obligations under EU law,” the court said in its ruling.

It said Denmark should have stopped use of the designation and ordered it to comply quickly.

If Denmark doesn’t, the Commission can turn to the court again to seek financial damages. The court said, nevertheless, that Denmark had cooperated sincerely over the case.

In addition to being manufactured in Greece, cheese can only be labelled “feta” if it has been made in keeping with the traditional recipe and method.

Greece says feta is part of its heritage because it has been making the cheese, made with both sheep and goat milk, for 6,000 years. Around 120,000 tonnes of feta are produced in Greece each year.

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Lawyers criticise Danish parliament for ‘special treatment’ of party leader

Parliament’s decision not to take Vanopslagh’s case to the courts suggests that the public and politicians are not equal before the law, according to two lawyers who spoke to broadcaster DR.

As an elected member of parliament, Liberal Alliance leader Vanopslagh was provided with a free apartment in Copenhagen and given parliamentary subsidies for “double household” (dobbelt husførelse) because he was registered as living at an address in Struer, West Jutland.

It later emerged he did not genuinely use the Struer address as his home and had thereby broken the rules. He later paid back the subsidies in full and returned the Copenhagen apartment.

“I’m not for one second in doubt that if this had been a municipal case, the municipality would have asked for the money back and reported him to the police,” lawyer Mads Pramming, a benefit fraud specialist, told broadcaster DR.

In 2019, parliament – including Liberal Alliance – voted for stricter rules on benefit fraud, including obliging municipalities to report certain types of cases to the police.

“It looks a bit funny that parliament is enacting strict control to prevent the public being paid money they are not entitled to, and giving municipalities an obligation to report it. And when it then comes to parliament itself, things are a lot less strict,” Pramming told DR.

Struer Municipality has ruled that Vanopslagh broke CPR (central person registration) rules by not living in Struer enough between 2020 and 2022 for it to be deemed his actual residence, as he claimed at the time.

Two left-wing parties, Red Green Alliance and Alternative, have called for the Præsidium – speaker’s council – in parliament to consider whether Vanopslagh should be prosecuted over the issue.

The speaker of parliament, Søren Gade, has told DR that the case will not be taken further. A previous case from 2015 has been cited as precedent for the decision.

A second lawyer, Michael Bjørn Hansen, called that stance “absurd” in comments to the broadcaster. Hansen also has expertise in benefit fraud cases.

“Based on some kind of objective consideration, this is certainly benefit fraud. Because he has cheated on some rules and received public benefits which he is not entitled to,” he said.

Equal status before the law “is not present here” unless parliament files a report with police, he argued.

“This is different to the demands parliament is making on municipalities,” he said.

The Præsidium is responsible for managing Denmark’s 179 lawmakers. Five members of parliament sit on the council, with the speaker being the senior member.

Vanopslagh has admitted to wrongdoing in the “double home” scandal and said his knowledge of the rules had been lacking.

“It’s my fault, I made a mistake. But other people make the judgement and say what I have to pay back,” he said earlier this week.

A number of legal experts previously told newspaper Dagbladet Information that the matter should be investigated by the police.

Vanopslagh received a total of around 75,000 kroner to which he was not entitled, according to DR.

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