Hnt.hu
Title
Hegyközségek Nemzeti Tanácsa
Description
Hungary, as a founding member of the O.I.V., possesses long traditions of grape growing and wine making. Like in many other suitable areas of Europe, evidence manifests that grapes have been cultivated and vinified in the Carpathian Basin for over two millennia.
Regulations concerning technical and legal questions of this activity were elaborated relatively early, aiming at the assurance of quality and the prevention of falsification. The first regulations of this kind originate in the 16th century. The first act on the wine communities, which is similar to the present act was issued in 1894 and was in force until the dictatorship government began after World War II.
The present act on the wine communities was published after the transition in 1989/90, on December 27 1994. The organizations of the wine communities were set up gradually: as the last one, the National Council of Wine Communities was founded on March 28 1996. At the preparation of the act on wine communities, both the old national traditions and the former act on wine communities were taken into account, and, in order to make it EU conforming, so was the legislation of the same field in the most prominent grape and wine producing countries of the EU.
