Brussels, 14/02/2012 (Agence Europe) - The subject of deciding on the management of Protected Designation of Origin and Protected Geographical Indication for products continues to divide the EU institutions and is preventing them from reaching a compromise on the proposals for quality agricultural products. This observation was made on Monday 13 February by experts at the Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA).
The Presidency's compromise text for the negotiations with the EP on the quality products text was generally well received by EU countries' delegations. Nonetheless, there is still a major point of friction between the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers of the EU on the subject of managing the awarding of the PDO and PGI labels. The EP considers that it is crucial. It proposed an amendment (number 87) to Article 42 of the Commission proposal. The EP is keen for the award of these labels to be organised by representative groups (2/3), along the lines of what has been decided in the milk sector. A majority of countries at the SCA is opposed to this amendment (Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic and even Sweden and Slovakia). Some of these countries do not want a group of producers to be able to impose its views in this field and do not want what was obtained in a specific context (that of contractualisation in the milk sector, in response to the crisis in this field) to become jurisprudence in the other sectors. Other countries, such as France, Spain and Italy, on the other hand, support the EP's demand and have explained that the award of these labels only affects a small part of production. In short, the Presidency has had to point out that majority support is lacking at the SCA on the EP amendment on managing the award of PDO and PGI and on the compromise text on this point.
The SCA will return to this issue on 27 February, with the presentation of a new compromise text from the Presidency to negotiate an agreement with the EP. (LC/transl.fl)