Europe Strengthens Protections for Geographical Indications

The European Parliament has voted over­whelm­ingly to strengthen rules pro­tect­ing Geographical Indications (GIs) for wine, spir­its, extra vir­gin olive oil and other agri­cul­tural goods against coun­ter­feits and fraud.

The reforms include addi­tional pro­tec­tion for GI prod­ucts online, clar­i­fy­ing how prod­ucts using GI ingre­di­ents must be labeled, giv­ing GI pro­duc­ers more rights and stream­lin­ing the reg­is­tra­tion process for new GI prod­ucts.

“This is a sig­nif­i­cant moment for the agri-food sec­tor,” said Pietro Paganini, pres­i­dent of Competere, a think tank that lob­bied for the law.

“For the first time, the sec­tor has a uni­fied leg­isla­tive basis, which aims to strengthen the com­pet­i­tive­ness and sus­tain­abil­ity of ter­ri­to­r­ial pro­duc­tions, as well as the fun­da­men­tal role of pro­tec­tion con­sor­tia,” he added. ​“The new reg­u­la­tion rec­og­nizes the Italian model as an exam­ple for all Europe.”

The new law requires national author­i­ties to take admin­is­tra­tive and judi­cial mea­sures to stop the ille­gal use of GIs online and in the real world. For exam­ple, domain names using GIs ille­gally must be shut down or access dis­abled via geo-block­ing.

The new rules also restrict how processed prod­ucts may use GIs on their pack­ag­ing or adver­tis­ing, stat­ing that the GI must be ​“used in suf­fi­cient quan­ti­ties to con­fer an essen­tial char­ac­ter­is­tic on the processed prod­uct.”

Furthermore, the per­cent­age of the GI ingre­di­ent used in the prod­uct must be indi­cated on the label, and a rec­og­nized pro­ducer group for the ingre­di­ent must be noti­fied before use.

If used in processed prod­ucts, GI names must be included on pack­ag­ing in the same field of vision as the names of the food pro­ducer.

The law also clar­i­fies that the European Commission will main­tain sole over­sight of the GI sys­tem, sim­pli­fies the pro­ce­dure for apply­ing for new GIs and encour­ages pro­duc­ers to develop tourist activ­i­ties.

While the pro­posal to attach manda­tory sus­tain­able prac­tices to GI appli­ca­tions was not approved, the final text encour­ages pro­duc­ers to pre­pare sus­tain­abil­ity reports describ­ing their sus­tain­able prac­tices.

According to Paolo De Castro, an Italian Member of the European Parliament and the rap­por­teur for the reform, the new leg­is­la­tion will make European agri­cul­ture more sus­tain­able and com­pet­i­tive by pro­mot­ing activ­i­ties that add value to tra­di­tion­ally pro­duced goods.

“Thanks to Parliament, we now have a cru­cial reg­u­la­tion for our qual­ity agri-food chains, strength­en­ing the role of pro­ducer groups and the pro­tec­tion for Geographical Indications, increas­ing sim­pli­fi­ca­tion, sus­tain­abil­ity and trans­parency towards con­sumers,” he said.

“This is a bet­ter sys­tem, gen­er­at­ing added value, with­out pub­lic funds,” De Castro added. ​“After the crises sparked by the Covid-19 pan­demic, the Russian inva­sion of Ukraine, and the surge in pro­duc­tion prices, the new GI reg­u­la­tion finally is good news for European farm­ers.”

GIs insti­tute intel­lec­tual prop­erty rights for reg­is­tered food prod­ucts from spe­cific pro­duc­tion areas and are pro­duced accord­ing to approved pro­to­cols – usu­ally fol­low­ing tra­di­tional meth­ods.

Since the 1970s, European author­i­ties have moved to pro­tect GIs. There are cur­rently 3,5000 GIs rec­og­nized by the E.U., val­ued at more than €80 bil­lion.

More than 130 extra vir­gin olive oils are reg­is­tered with a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) or Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) by Brussels.

PDOs are GI prod­ucts entirely pro­duced in a spe­cific region, while PGIs tend to cover broader areas and spec­ify that most but not all of the process must occur in that area.

According to Janusz Wojciechowski, the E.U. com­mis­sioner for agri­cul­ture, GI prod­ucts ​“pre­serve our unique her­itage and tra­di­tions, and they sup­port rural job cre­ation.”

The law will be pub­lished in the E.U. Official Journal as soon as the European Council for­mally adopts the new rules and will come into force 20 days after pub­li­ca­tion.

• European Parliament
• European Parliament
• Competere