Brussels, 21/03/2006 (Agence Europe) - On 20 March, European Agriculture Ministers adopted by qualified majority the Regulation on the protection of geographical indications and designations of origin for agricultural products and foodstuffs, and the Regulation on agricultural products as traditional specialities guaranteed. Only the Netherlands voted against. These regulations, which do not apply either to products from the wines sector (except wine vinegar) or to spirits, allows Community arrangements on registering protected geographical indications (PGI), protected designations of origin (PDO) and guaranteed traditional specialities (TSG) to be brought into line with WTO decisions.
In line with the WTO decision of April 2004, following a complaint by the United States and Canada, the new regulation on the protection of geographical indications and designations of origin of products removes the requirement for third countries to apply comparable protection on a reciprocal and equivalent basis, and allows operators in third countries to direct requests for registration and objections to the Commission, without referring to the national authorities of those countries. The WTO decision had to be implemented by 3 April 2006, a timescale respected by the EU since the new rules will come into force with the publication of the Official Journal.
The main amendments to the 1992 regulations are: (1) the introduction of a single document for applications containing the name, a brief description of the product, specific rules for packaging and labelling, a definition of the geographical area from which the product comes and proof of the link between the product and its geographical origin. This document will allow any operator to exercise his/her right to object (within 6 months of the publication of the protected product in the Official Journal) and the competent authorities to guarantee protection for the names registered in each Member State; (2) the request for registration linked to a geographical area in a third country may be sent directly to the Commission; (3) all provisions related to equivalence and reciprocity for products from third countries are deleted in order to allow all names corresponding to geographical areas in third countries to have access to the Community scheme for the protection of geographical indications. In the same spirit, the new rules authorise any Member State or third country and any operators to object directly to a registration proposed by groups of producers.