Spain’s Minister of Agriculture, Luis Planas, said, on Tuesday 27 June in Luxembourg, that he hoped to reach a political agreement with the European Parliament on the proposal for agricultural geographical indications by autumn.
The EU ‘Agriculture’ Council took stock of certain dossiers, including agricultural GIs, which will be transferred by the Swedish Presidency to the incoming Spanish Presidency as of 1 July.
The European Parliament and the EU Council have adopted their respective positions and a first trilogue took place on 6 June. Two other trilogue dates are scheduled: 18 July and 27 September.
At the EU ‘Agriculture’ Council, France and Germany noted that the positions of the European Parliament and EU Council were fairly similar, which should allow for an “acceptable” compromise to be adopted (see EUROPE 13192/11).
While the European Commission regretted that the EU Council and the European Parliament refused to grant tasks to the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) in terms of technical assistance during the examination of files, the ministers of several countries (France, Italy, Greece) asked to remain firm in the negotiations on “the absence of delegation of tasks to the EUIPO”. Poland has indicated that other tasks could be entrusted to the EUIPO, other than examining applications for GI protection.
It should be noted that, for craft and industrial GIs (Limoges porcelain, Hainaut blue stones, etc.), the EUIPO will have powers to examine applications, including for this type of GI originating from third countries (see EUROPE 13187/32).
For Estonia, recognition of producer organisations should remain optional.
Greece and Germany have advocated a system without too much red tape when it comes to the sustainability criteria to be met by GI producers.
Link to the Swedish Presidency of the EU Council’s document: https://aeur.eu/f/7s1 (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)