EU: Better protection of quality agricultural products

The European Parliament (EP) supports improving the protection of quality agricultural products, for which MEPs consider that:

• Geographical indications (GI) -intellectual property rights that identify products having qualities, characteristics or a reputation due to natural and human factors linked to their place of origin- should be better protected online. Domains using a name of a GI without the right to do so must be automatically closed or assigned to a producer group that uses the GI legally. An alert system monitoring the registration of domain names should be set by the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) for this purpose.
• Parliament demands that GIs should be better protected in processed products. Processed products containing a GI ingredient should not be allowed to be named after the GI, unless permitted to do so by the GI’s producers.
• Registering GIs should be faster. The Commission should have only five months to register a new GI.
• National authorities should manage most requests for changes to existing GI registrations without the Commission having to check them again. According to MEPs, the Commission has unique agricultural expertise and should therefore continue administering the GIs system, rather than the EUIPO.
• Finally, MEPs say that recognised producer groups should get more rights and resources. They should be in charge of establishing minimum conditions for the use of a GI name and supervising the fair use of GIs. Recognised producer groups should also be able to receive compulsory financial contributions from all producers of the GI good.

The report, which will serve as a basis for negotiations with the EU Council on the final form of the legislative text, was adopted with 603 votes in favour, 18 against and 8 abstentions.

Background

GIs have been protected by the EU since the 1970s. Today, the EU register of GIs contains almost 3500 entries, which represent a sales value of EUR 74.8 billion. The sales value of a product with a protected name is often double that of similar products without a certification.

In adopting this resolution, Parliament is responding to citizens' expectations to reduce the standardisation of products and recognise local and regional cultural and production peculiarities as expressed in the Proposals 12(3) of the conclusions of the Conference on the Future of Europe.