Brussels, 27/03/2023 (Agence Europe) – The European Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture managed to find common ground on Monday 27 March on the majority of compromise amendments to the proposal on geographical indications (GIs) for agricultural products.
The Committee is expected to vote on 20 April on the draft report by Paolo De Castro (S&D, Italian), which includes more than 40 compromise amendments that have been negotiated between the political groups (see EUROPE 13148/14).
A meeting between Mr De Castro and the shadow rapporteurs of the different political groups is scheduled for Tuesday 28 March to finalise the drafting of the compromises. One question remaining open would be the inclusion of wines and spirits in the horizontal regulation on GIs.
The EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) would have a limited role in GI matters under the proposed compromises. The EUIPO would therefore no longer have any power to examine terms of reference (although it does this work today). The compromise grants tasks to this agency in terms of managing the Community GI register, international agreements and in relation to the protection of domain names (alert system).
Regarding the new chapter on sustainability, the agreement provides for the possibility for producer groups to introduce new criteria in the terms of reference and to report on the progress made in this respect.
Link to the compromise amendments: https://aeur.eu/f/62b
Fonte: Agence Europe