Following the meeting of the European Parliament’s Intergroup on Wine, Spirits and Quality Products, the Geographical indication (GI) sector, represented by AREPO, EFOW and oriGIn EU, called on the European Commission on Wednesday 10 November to “abandon proposals that would weaken the EU's GI policy”.
At the same time, these organisations are calling for an ambitious reform to strengthen the EU’s geographical indications (GI) systems through the EU’s Farm to Fork strategy.
The European Commission’s services presented, at this meeting of the Intergroup, the outline of the legislative proposal that would be presented in the coming months by the Commission: - delegation of the management of geographical indications to the Alicante Trademark Office (EUIPO for European Union Intellectual Property Office); - lack of concrete proposals on GIs and sustainability; - strengthening of online GI protection and harmonisation of controls.
AREPO is the Association of European Regions for Products of Origin, EFOW is the European Federation of Origin Wines, and oriGIn EU is the European branch of theWorld Alliance of Geographical Indicators. 3,224 EU GIs were protected in the EU in 2020, with a sales value of €74.8 billion (in 2020).
Link to the joint press release of the three organisations: https://bit.ly/3bWMpVC (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)