The proposal to make it compulsory to include a list of ingredients in the labelling of wine and other alcoholic beverages has been debated and rejected many times. It was discussed at length during the legal process leading to the adoption of Directive 79/112/EEC on the labelling, presentation and advertising of foodstuffs, when the ultimately successful arguments presented by opponents of the measure ranged from the view that wine is a living organism whose composition is constantly mutating, to the opinion that such information is irrelevant to consumers. Alcoholic beverages thus remained exempt, despite article 6.3 of the Directive prescribing that «in the case of beverages containing more than 1.2 % by volume of alcohol, the council, acting on a proposal from the commission, shall, before the expiry of a period of four years following notification of this directive , determine the rules for labelling ingredients and, possibly, indicating the alcoholic strength». In fact, no such measure was adopted (although the sixth recital of the Directive specified that «… the prime consideration for any rules on the labelling of foodstuffs should be the need to inform and protect the consumer»).