Luxury brands fight 'Made in EU' label

Walpole, a lobby group representing 100 of Britain's most famous luxury brands, is today embarking on a media campaign to stop Brussels introducing a generic "Made in EU" label.

The new label could lead to the banning of the decades-old "made in Britain" label on products such as Scottish whisky or stilton cheese. Many Walpole members, such as Burberry and Jaguar Cars, trade on their Britishness.

The group is teaming up with Italian and French lobbyists to fight the proposals. One of the companies to speak out is the luxury shoe brand and Walpole member Jimmy Choo, which was transformed into a household name after it was taken over by London socialite Tamara Mellon in 1996.

Its chief executive, Robert Bensoussan, said: "EU means UK, Italy, France and their wealth of high-end craftsmanship, tradition and expertise. But it also means Poland, Portugal and Turkey, which cannot be compared. An EU label will only favour cheating and will hurt the final consumer."

Daily Telegraph - 19/01/2004)