The Council of the EU is looking for ways to make its position on the reform of agricultural geographical indications more flexible, with a view to facilitating a compromise with the European Parliament at the trilogue on 10 October.
However, a final trilogue on the GI issue is scheduled for 24 October, when the Spanish Minister Luis Planas and the Commissioner for Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski, are expected to attend, according to several European sources (see EUROPE 13242/2).
The Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA) will discuss the GI reforms on Monday 2 October in preparation for the inter-institutional negotiations on 10 October, on the basis of a document from the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU, as seen by EUROPE.
With regard to producer groups and recognised producer groups, the EU Council shares the desire of the European Parliament and the Commission to extend the protection of geographical indications (GIs), strengthen the role of producer groups and increase the use of GIs throughout the EU.
The EU Council provides for minimum EU rules on producer groups and recognised producer groups so that they can act to protect GIs as collective intellectual property rights. The Council wishes to authorise the four Member States (France, Spain, Portugal and Italy) which already have national producer group systems to maintain these rules, while giving the other 23 Member States the choice of whether or not to set up a recognition system.
For its part, the European Parliament is proposing to oblige the Member States to set up a system for recognising GI producer groups, which the EU Council is refusing to do.
In return for maintaining the voluntary approach, the European Parliament is calling for the regulation to establish a system of incentives for recognised producer groups. These incentives could consist of allowing the latter to recommend binding rules to the national authorities or to agree downstream value-sharing clauses with operators.
Ingredients. The EU Council’s mandate requires producers of pre-packaged foodstuffs, who wish to use the name of a GI as an ingredient in the name of the foodstuff, to inform the recognised producer group in advance.
The European Parliament is proposing to make the use of the GI name in the name of a pre-packaged foodstuff subject to the prior authorisation of recognised producer groups and, where such groups do not exist, to allow a majority of producers to establish minimum conditions for the fair use of the name.
The EU Council prefers the solution of prior notification rather than prior authorisation, in order to guarantee a level playing field for all operators. The Spanish Presidency of the EU Council is proposing two drafting options for this article of the text.
Sustainability. The EU Council wishes to strengthen the sustainability aspects of GIs and to allow producer groups and recognised producer groups to apply higher sustainability standards than those set out in EU legislation. The European Parliament wants to include animal welfare in sustainability and draw up a list of objectives to which sustainable development commitments are supposed to contribute, as well as offering producer groups the opportunity to submit sustainability reports. The Spanish Presidency of the EU Council is asking the Member States about the concessions that could be made.
On domain names, the European Parliament is proposing to go beyond ‘national level’ protection for GIs in Internet domains and to establish a ‘geo-blocking’ system for online surfaces that use the name of a GI. The ‘geo-blocking’ system, as suggested by the European Parliament, should aim to cut off access in the Union to domain names that infringe GI protection, regardless of where these domain names are registered. In order to strengthen the protection of GIs against domain names and to find a compromise with the European Parliament, a solution in line with the ‘law on digital services’ seems preferable, according to the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU.
With regard to the ‘wine package’, the EU Council’s mandate maintains the following provisions within the scope of this regulation, and therefore outside the text on the common organisation of the market (CMO): registration procedure, modifications, cancellations and oppositions, legal protection, labelling, controls and sustainable development. However, the provisions relating to definitions, specifications and traditional terms of reference would remain in the CMO. The European Parliament wishes to leave all the provisions in the CMO, with the exception of those relating to the registration procedure, amendments, cancellations and oppositions.
There is one final subject not addressed at this stage by the CSA: the tasks conferred on the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). On this subject, negotiators from the three institutions are said to be studying a draft declaration aimed at allowing the Commission to continue to use, to a certain extent, the services of the EUIPO for certain GI-related tasks. The EU Council is very reticent on this point.
Link to the Spanish document: https://aeur.eu/f/8sd (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)