Brussels, 23/06/2010 (Agence Europe) - On 17 June, COPA, the Committee of Professional Agricultural Organisations, and COGECA, the General Confederation of Agricultural Cooperatives, called for the European Commission to ensure that the specific characteristics of the different systems for wines, aromatised wines, spirits and agricultural products are maintained, “otherwise the success of the whole system will be threatened”.
The European Commission is preparing a proposal to reform EU legislation on geographical indications and to simplify the existing systems on protected designations of origin (PDOs) and protected geographical indication (PGIs) as part of its quality policy. Currently, there is a system for wines (wines with a geographical indication and wines without such an indication) and a separate horizontal system for a whole series of agricultural products (cheese, olive oil, etc). One of the options being considered by the European Commission is to merge the PDO (for wines, aromatised wines, spirits and agricultural products) and PGI systems.
The agricultural organisations point out that the legislation on PDOs and PGIs aims to promote quality and to protect regional specialities, which have a well deserved reputation, from imitation products.
Copa-Cogeca Secretary General Pekka Pesonen urged the Commission to ensure that the specific characteristics of the different systems are maintained “as there are many differences between the geographical indications systems for wine, spirits and agricultural products”. The main difference is that the definitions of protected designations of origin (PDOs) and protected geographical indication (PGIs) are very different. A PGI wine has to be produced within the given geographical area, with 85% of the grapes coming from this area, and the remaining 15% of grapes must come from the same member state.
In the horizontal legislation, only one of the following processes has to be carried out in the geographical area: production, processing or preparation. Furthermore, the legislation which applies to spirits is only covered by legislation on PGIs, but not on PDOs.
Another impact of merging them would be that wine legislation would be divided over two different regulations, one for PDO and PGI wines and another covering all other wines. This would inevitably lead to a loss of transparency and coherence, since the discussion and decision-making bodies would be different for each type of wine. “One cannot forget that the production and marketing of all types of wines are closely linked,” Thierry Coste, chairman of the COPA-COGECA working group on wine, said.
COPA-COGECA takes the view that it is crucial that the harmonisation proposed by the Commission ensures that the specific characteristics of each system are maintained. Otherwise, this process would not be a simplification but rather a “dismantling” of the current systems.
The European Commission is currently preparing the impact assessment which will be completed by September. The proposal for reforming the EU legislation on geographical indications is expected to be tabled by the end of the year. (L.C./transl.rt)