The Council of the EU, the European Parliament and the European Commission reached a political agreement on Thursday 14 March on a proposal for a regulation on the rules to be followed when the EU accedes to the Geneva Act of the Lisbon Agreement on appellations of origin and geographical indications.
The Geneva Act is a new multilateral treaty for the protection of geographical indications managed by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
European Commissioner for Agriculture Phil Hogan said that, thanks to this political agreement, "EU geographical indications can have improved protection at the multilateral level. This will complement the bilateral agreements that already protect EU geographical indications around the world".
The Geneva Act modernises the 1958 Lisbon Agreement on the Protection of Appellations of Origin and their International Registration and allows international organisations such as the European Union to become members.
The Lisbon Agreement, which currently has 28 members, including seven EU Member States (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, France, Hungary, Italy and Portugal), provides a means of ensuring the protection of appellations of origin through a single registration. In the future, EU geographical indications will be able to benefit from a high level of protection in other Member States.
In assessing the economic data of the 2,768 geographical indications registered in the EU between 2005 and 2010, a study cited by the Commission showed that, on average, the price of a product with a geographical indication is 2.23 times higher than the price of a comparable product without a geographical indication.
The value of sales of EU geographical indications (all sectors combined) amounted to €54.3 billion in 2010 (5.7% of the EU food and drink sector); the estimated export value of EU geographical indications amounts to €11.5 billion (15% of EU food and drink exports). (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)