On Tuesday, 28 February, the European Parliament’s Committee on Legal Affairs heavily amended the original proposal on the new system for protecting geographical indications for craft and manufactured products.
The report by Marion Walsmann (EPP, German) was adopted with 19 votes in favour, none against, and no abstentions. MEPs on the Committee on Legal Affairs thus adopted a draft mandate for negotiations with the Council of the EU on the protection of geographical indications for craft and manufactured products. The five compromise amendments were approved during the European Parliament committee vote.
The aim of the text is to resolve the differences among national systems by protecting products such as natural stones, jewellery, textiles, lace, cutlery, glass, and porcelain both in the EU and at the international level.
A procedure for registering GIs and their labelling has been envisaged. Producers’ applications would first be examined by local and national authorities, and then the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) would take a decision on the geographical indication’s registration. MEPs amended the text in such a way that Member States that do not want to set up a national registration authority will have the option of having the EUIPO handle registrations directly. MEPs are opting for electronic applications to be used and specify that national authorities [should] help microenterprises and SMEs manage their applications and ensure lower registration fees.
Checks and enforcement. EU countries will be required to designate a competent authority responsible for verifying that a GI has been placed on the market in accordance with the product specifications. MEPs want to ensure that the same rules are effectively applied to products sold online and to make the creation of a digital portal that provides public access to certification bodies’ contact details obligatory.
“It was very important to me to make it easy for manufacturers to submit their quality label application. This is why we think SMEs should benefit from additional simplification and reduced fees. In addition, Member States should not have to set up any new structures for the registration procedure, but [they] can provide for an application to be submitted directly to the Office for the Protection of Intellectual Property”, declared Marion Walsmann.
Once the mandate to open negotiations with the Council of the EU has been approved by the European Parliament in plenary, discussions on the final text of the legislation will be able to begin (see EUROPE 13064/13).
Link to the results of the vote and the compromise amendments in question: https://aeur.eu/f/5is (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)