From EU Council and Commission green light for new regulation on PDO and PGI products

“From 2024, our farmers and producers will be able to count on a new single European text on quality productions, with ambitious measures, in the sole interest of our production chains of excellence, as we had promised”: this is how Paolo De Castro, Europarliament rapporteur for the new EU regulation on PDO and PGI products, comments on the agreement reached today with the negotiators of the EU Council and Commission, respectively Spanish Minister Luis Planas, president of the Agrifish Council, and Commissioner Janusz Wojcechowski.

“The new regulation, which will enter into force in early 2024 after formal steps in Parliament and the Council, will evolve a system unparalleled in the world, capable of generating value without investing any public funds, strengthening the role of the Consortia, the protection of PDOs and PGIs, and transparency towards consumers; in particular, it introduces the obligation to indicate on the label of any PDO and PGI the name of the producer, and eliminates once and for all those loopholes in the system that allow the reputation of PGIs to be unduly exploited, as in the case of Slovenian and Cypriot balsamic vinegar, or Prosek made in Croatia. It is clarified”, explains the MEP, “how applications for registration of traditional mentions, such as Prosek, can no longer be taken into account, as they are identical or evocative of PDO or PGI names”.

PDO and PGI products “will also benefit from ex-officio protection in the Internet domain system, with a system of immediate geoblocking of all illicit content. Where PGIs are used as ingredients, it will be necessary to inform the Consortium of the use of the product. Member states that want to, will also be able to provide for the obligation of written authorization by the Consortia of protection”, De Castro continues, “for the benefit of which we have included new powers, including the fight against devaluing practices, production planning with plans of up to six years and the promotion of Ig tourism, exemplified the rules for the registration and modification of production specifications”.

An end is also put to one of the most debated points of the regulation, the role of the European Intellectual Property Office, Euipo: “Today”, De Castro explains, “we have clarified that Euipo is to have an advisory role and only on administrative matters, while the interlocutor of producers will remain the EU Commission, consolidating the link between European quality marks and the development of rural areas. The new single text for European quality will be the only legislative act of this legislature to support a more competitive, sustainable, integrated agricultural and agri-food sector capable of creating added value, to the benefit of our rural areas”, De Castro concludes.

With the reform of the European system of designations of origin (GIs), Italy’s primacy in the European Union is protected with 885 recognized products, including food and wine, which develop, Coldiretti estimates, a value of nearly 20 billion euros with the contribution of more than 86,000 operators.