National delegations from EU member states are making progress on the regulation on the protection of geographical indications for industrial and craft products, according to several documents seen by EUROPE.
The Member States have little to do with the substance of the text, but rather with the modalities of implementation. They make the scope of the Regulation somewhat more flexible, for example. In its proposal (see EUROPE 12932/1), the Commission had indicated that the list of artisanal and industrial products covered by the Regulation was based on the list set out in Regulation 2658/87 on the tariff and statistical nomenclature and on the Common Customs Tariff (Article 1). However, Member States have excluded from the scope of the Regulation “products contrary to public policy” (Article 5).
Some of the changes introduced by the Council raise questions about the place of SMEs in the text. For example, on the issue of registration fees, Member States believe that these should remain reasonable and should not undermine the competitiveness of GI producers. But where the European Commission imposed a mandatory consideration of micro-enterprises and SMEs, the EU Council prefers to make this optional (‘may take into account’ instead of ‘shall take into account’).
The EU Council specifies the national opposition procedure, for example when the registration of the proposed geographical indication would jeopardise the existence of an entirely or partly identical name or trademark or the existence of products that have been legally on the market for at least five years (Article 13, c).
On the European Parliament side, Marion Walsmann (EPP, German) will be the rapporteur for the Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI). The timetable for the negotiations is not yet known.
To view the 13 July compromise: https://aeur.eu/f/2pp (Original version in French Pascal Hansens)