Cyprus-Forum.com

[Me Ed]

London Liberal Democrat MEP Sarah Ludford has met with a delegation from North Cyprus to discuss equal treatment of Halloumi and Hellim cheese as regards EU recognition of protected-origin status.

Greek Cypriots applied for Halloumi cheese to be designated under the rules of Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) which ensure that the product can’t be imitated or reproduced. Some British products such as the English cheese Stilton have the same protection.

Sarah Ludford raised concerns with the European Commission regarding the potential discrimination that could occur towards producers of the cheese in North Cyprus, where a similar cheese is produced under the name Hellim. North Cyprus producers are now intending to make their own application for PDO status.

Sarah commented:

“It would be very unhelpful and divisive for the 2 cheeses to receive unequal treatment. The trade consequences for Hellim producers could be extremely harmful if they were locked out of markets because of special EU recognition of Halloumi.”

“The European Union has failed to deliver on its 2004 promise to help end isolation and encourage Turkish Cypriot economic development. The European Commission must not make matters worse by potentially enabling discrimination against Hellim.”

http://www.sarahludfordmep.org.uk/node/2067

[Maximus]

Tomatos vs Tomatoes.

Just a shamless plug :

The European Union has failed to deliver on its 2004 promise to help end isolation and encourage Turkish Cypriot economic development. The European Commission must not make matters worse by potentially enabling discrimination against Hellim.”

[Lordo]

Tomatos vs Tomatoes.

Just a shamless plug :

The European Union has failed to deliver on its 2004 promise to help end isolation and encourage Turkish Cypriot economic development. The European Commission must not make matters worse by potentially enabling discrimination against Hellim.”

Angurga vs Hiyar.

[B25]

London Liberal Democrat MEP Sarah Ludford has met with a delegation from North Cyprus to discuss equal treatment of Halloumi and Hellim cheese as regards EU recognition of protected-origin status.

Greek Cypriots applied for Halloumi cheese to be designated under the rules of Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) which ensure that the product can’t be imitated or reproduced. Some British products such as the English cheese Stilton have the same protection.

Sarah Ludford raised concerns with the European Commission regarding the potential discrimination that could occur towards producers of the cheese in North Cyprus, where a similar cheese is produced under the name Hellim. North Cyprus producers are now intending to make their own application for PDO status.

Sarah commented:

“It would be very unhelpful and divisive for the 2 cheeses to receive unequal treatment. The trade consequences for Hellim producers could be extremely harmful if they were locked out of markets because of special EU recognition of Halloumi.”

“The European Union has failed to deliver on its 2004 promise to help end isolation and encourage Turkish Cypriot economic development. The European Commission must not make matters worse by potentially enabling discrimination against Hellim.”

http://www.sarahludfordmep.org.uk/node/2067

Protected products are from legally recognised cultures/countries not from illegal occupied, copied pirated recipes. WTF you playing at with this BS post. And exactly what F promises did the EU make to the illegal regime? You are a wanker. With friends like you who needs enemies, idiot.

[Me Ed]

What this MP needs to realise is that there is only one cheese and it's native name is halloumi.

Additionally, it was developed by the natives of Cyprus during the medeival byzantine period, long before anyone of Turkic origin landed on the island.

Therefore, once halloumi gets it's PDO status, it is only proper that producers are licenced by the appropriate authority within the RoC.

[GreekIslandGirl]

So why don't you write to her and explain the situation instead of promoting/republishing her wrongful ideas and encouraging the illegal occupiers of northern Cyprus (TCs etc) to feel they have a just cause?

[Me Ed]

It was never my intention to promote her wrongful ideas, but to highlight to you guys what is going on with this issue in the UK and almost put it in the joke section.

Next time, to avoid any confusion, I will take GRs advice and include my own opinion on these matters, rather than just posting these reports as I have found a great source for what the illegal regimes UK lobbyists are up to.

[GreekIslandGirl]

Me Ed, I'm not having a go at you. But the Internet really has become a major source of easy propaganda material. The mass reproduction of which serves to legitimise an idea even if wrong - simply because it is reproduced or goes viral and laid down (often out of context) for time immemorial. So please take GR!'s advice and offer your opinion on an article such as that above. Criticise and damn the idea so that is what goes down on record rather than the wrongful idea itself. Do you see what I mean?

[Maximus]

I just wrote to her,

I basically ridiculed and informed her how stupid it all sounds.

[CBBB]

Hellim wins trademark battle

By Natalie Hami
Published on June 15, 2012

IN A RECENT judgment from the EU General Court the registration of the word ‘Hellim’ – the Turkish Cypriot version of halloumi - as a community trademark was won by German company Garmo AG.

According to reports, the product is made exclusively with cow’s milk.

In 2005 Garmo AG filed an application for the registration of community trademark for ‘Hellim’ and ‘Gazi Hellim’ at the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM).

However a year later the Cyprus Milk Industry Organisation filed a notice of opposition on the grounds that there would be confusion between the two names. The OKGB owns the trademark name for halloumi since 2000.

In 2010, the Opposition Division – a procedure allowing a European patent to be centrally opposed – dismissed the opposition case on the grounds that there was no likelihood of confusion between ‘Hellim’ and ‘Halloumi.’

The Milk Industry Organisation then filed an appeal with the Board of Appeals at the OHIM. However they were rejected again, and so lodged a case with the EU General Court.

In the case of Halloumi/Hellim, the EU General Court dismissed the case on the grounds that the similarities between the two words was not enough to create confusion since the Halloumi trademark was not particularly well known, reports said.

In the second case of Halloumi/Gazi Hellim, the General Court decided that there were certain semantic similarities. As a result the case lodged by the Milk Industry Organisation at the General Court was accepted.

Agriculture Minister Sophoclis Aletraris told the Cyprus Mail yesterday that the legal services would look into the whole issue, adding that “it was not something positive of course”.’

“That’s why we were shouting all this time about the Halloumi application,” he said.

Just a few months ago Aletraris warned cattle farmers and cheese makers that withdrawing the application to make Halloumi an EU-recognised Cypriot product would have disastrous effects. Cattle farmers and cheese makers were up in arms over the government’s decision to gradually increase the amount of goat and sheep milk in Halloumi to meet a 1985 prototype.

http://www.cyprus-mail.com/hellim/helli ... e/20120615