At the meeting of the Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA) on Monday 16 October, the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU confirmed the presence of the Minister for Agriculture, Luis Planas, at the fourth negotiating session with the European Parliament team on the recast of the rules on agricultural geographical indications.
The Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU has informed the SCA of the results of the third trilogue (10 October): 14 key outstanding issues were examined (including producer groups and recognised producer groups, ingredients, domain names, sustainability, the wine package, traditional terms, audits, the role of the European Union Intellectual Property Office, EUIPO).
The Spanish Presidency of the Council explained that at the last trilogue, in order to save time and given that all the issues had already been discussed to a large extent at a technical level, it proposed to tackle the outstanding issues in the form of a ‘package’ (see EUROPE 13269/12). However, at the request of the European Parliament, the trilogue examined the issues point by point, which meant that discussions progressed less quickly than expected, according to the Spanish Presidency of the Council.
Technical work in the EU Council and European Parliament will continue. The SCA will discuss the issue again on 30 October. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)