EU sets aside debt crisis to focus on olive oil service

In October of 2011, my husband and I honeymooned in Europe, where we spent most of our time in Italy.  While there, the occasional English channel that we were able to locate on our hotel televisions was filled with dismal talk of the debt crisis.  In October of 2012, we vacationed in Turkey, where again we listened to journalists discussing how bad the European debt crisis still was.  Last week, we returned from a trip to Spain, where unemployment currently stands at 27%.  When we lit upon BBC in our Madrid hotel room, I remarked to my hubby that every time we come back to Europe, the news is the same as last time.

Well.  "Not anymore, thank you very much," said the European Union (EU) this week as it put aside its apparently fruitless labor on the debt crisis and focused its attention on another pressing issue: service of olive oil in EU restaurants.  According to a Reuters article, the European Commission introduced new rules to govern how olive oil is served, including rules stating that restaurants can no longer serve olive oil in glass jugs or serving dishes but instead must always bring it to the table in its original, non-refillable container.

The idea behind these rules is noble enough.  The EU wants to prevent restaurants from mixing the olive oil with an inferior product or otherwise diluting it.  However, how necessary is this measure?  If the olive oil is being diluted enough to affect the taste at a particular restaurant, people have another option besides government intervention.  It's called eating somewhere else.  If your palate is discerning enough to detect that you have just been served virgin olive oil when you were expecting extra virgin, then don't come back.

The EU defended its decision, saying that the new rules will help olive oil producers who have suffered major losses due to the afore-mentioned, apparently less-important European debt crisis problem.  To which one restaurant owner responded by saying that the new rules will prevent him from buying wholesale virgin olive oil direct from the producer and force him into a higher cost structure.  How driving up costs for already ailing restaurants will affect their bottom line and, consequently, the amount of olive oil they purchase, was not addressed by the EU's spokesman.

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