Thank you for this Anthony. It looks reasonably hopeful if not all a bit bureaucratic as might be expected. But I think a couple of areas need close watching:
1. I note that in the measures the 'Technical Commission (TC)' is to consider over the coming months (years?) it only mentions 'beef gut in salted strips' - does this mean that sheep gut (or unsalted beef strips) or any other gut is still in danger of a ban or that they are already free from such a restriction? 2. Further, is the TC really suggesting that only one gut processing unit will be allowed in the entire EU? This seems a distintly retrograde step (and even one against the much vaunted ambition of free and open competition across the borders of the single market). Good to see Mimmo's name there. regards Martyn --- On Wed, 21/12/11, Anthony Hind <[email protected]> wrote: From: Anthony Hind <[email protected]> Subject: [LUTE] "Gut string petition reaches the EU Level" To: [email protected] Cc: [email protected] Date: Wednesday, 21 December, 2011, 8:29 Dear lutenists Following the Italian government's acceptance of the main points of our petition, a meeting took place in Brussels at the EU level. After a long and technically difficult discussion the follwing results were achieved, as described here in a message from the petition organisers. The organisers therefore wish to thank once again all those who signed or supported the petition (see their message below): Regards Anthony % Dear friends and signatories of the European petition, We have finally received wonderful news from Brussels, with all the details that we want to tell you. Thanks to the interest shown by Mr. Rinaldi and Mr. Berlato, Members of Parliament, our petition has resulted in two parliamentary questions which, together with the echo given by the press to our case, and the active support of leading personalities in the field of Early Music, attracted the attention of senior officials in the European Union, particularly those in the Department of Food and Animal Health. % These officials understanding the urgency of the matter, made themselves available in order to set up a Technical Commission, on the issue of safeguarding the Art of String Making, with the firm intention of confronting and resolving the problem once and for all. % In the committee were present: Matjaz Klemencic Sign (Policy Officer for Animal health - European Commission, Health and Consumers, Directorate-general), Martial Plantady (Legislative Officer - Food hygiene, Alert Systems and Training, European Commission health and consumers, Directorate-general) Mimmo Peruffo (Stringmaker and researcher), Dmitry Badiarov (Luthier and musician) Geert Robberechts (La Petite Bande, manager), SaA-d El Khadraoui (Belgian MEP). % Thanks to these contacts with EU representatives who are directly concerned in law making, we have been able to obtain strong guarantees which represent the first-ever recognition of the existence of the trade category of String makers at the European level and the first comprehensive legislative protection of their work. Very briefly, the contents of the measures which will be released in the coming months are as follows: % 1) harmonization of the rules governing the exchange and / or import of raw material for string-makers (beef gut in salted strips) inside and outside the European Union; % 2) establishment of a production unit of high quality raw material under EU protection in European territory. This unique center will provide the raw material required to support the production of all string makers in Europe and will be backed up by appropriate incentives, both economic and technical; % 3)the resolution of a specific and simplified health regulation established for European string making companies (which are still required to acquire the status of Authorized Technical Plant). % We, the administrators of this page feel very satisfied both with the achievements of the petition, initially for string making in Italy, but now for string making in the whole of the EU. We therefore wish to thank you again, as we did on the previous occasion, for your active participation in promoting our petitions and we encourage you to continue spreading the culture of the String Making Art, promoting all moves in its favour and freely informing us about any new initiatives through our facebook page or our newly created blog "Amor Cordis!" ([1]http://amorcordis.blogspot.com/) which aims to be a virtual platform for collecting any new cultural data on the topic of historical gut strings. % [2]http://amorcordis.blogspot.com/2011/12/amor-cordis-uno-spazio-cultur ale.html % The European petition is therefore officially closed starting from today, Tuesday, December 13 at 22.45, with 2584 signatures. To get on or off this list see list information at [3]http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html -- References 1. http://amorcordis.blogspot.com/ 2. http://amorcordis.blogspot.com/2011/12/amor-cordis-uno-spazio-culturale.html 3. http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
