Italy's agricultural world shields around the industrial hemp supply chain and calls for urgent intervention by the European Parliament on the Meloni government's measures that threaten its survival. A cross-party coalition, including the largest agricultural organizations on the national scene, has petitioned the EU Parliament to denounce the "serious violations of EU regulations."
Confagricoltura, CIA, Copagri, CNA Agroalimentare, UNCI, Liberi Agricoltori, Altragricoltura, Associazione Florovivaisti Italiani. Then, there are the supply chain associations Canapa Sativa Italia, Federcanapa, Sardinia Cannabis, Assocanapa, Resilienza Italia Onlus, and Canapa delle Marche. EIHA, the European Industrial Hemp Association, and the French UPCBD have also joined the appeal. Together, they are asking the European Parliament's Petitions Committee (PETI) to "verify the conformity of the Italian regulations" and to "call on the European Commission"—to which they had already addressed a letter last June—to assess their compatibility with EU law.
The petition points out that the amendment to the Security Decree, which effectively bans the production and trade of hemp inflorescences and derivatives, and the June 27 Ministerial Decree, which classifies CBD oral compositions among narcotic substances, "violate fundamental principles of EU law, in particular the free movement of goods," and the jurisprudence of the EU Court of Justice, which in a November 2020 ruling "has already determined that CBD is not a narcotic substance." Moreover, in a September 11 ruling, the Lazio Regional Administrative Court suspended the ministerial decree on CBD.
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