Process of new EU regulation on PDO and PGI stumbles in third round of negotiations

Black smoke from the third round of negotiations between the Parliament, the Council and the EU Commission, staged yesterday in Brussels, which was supposed to sanction agreement on the reform of the PDO and PGI system, which includes sensitive issues such as the protection of PGIs used as ingredients, the role of consortia, online protection, sustainability, the role of Euipo and the wine package. After the unanimous green light obtained in the Agriculture Commission, and the vote of the EU Parliament, meeting in plenary before the summer, which had definitively approved the text of the new EU regulation on PDO and PGI products, with a majority of more than 95% (603 votes in favor, 18 against and 8 abstentions), comes an unexpected stop, but, as Paolo De Castro, rapporteur of the regulation, commented, “the negotiation is proceeding, with the aim of offering our quality producers a better and stronger regulatory framework by the end of the legislature. However, I cannot hide the disappointment of the entire European Parliament negotiating team, starting with ComAgri President Norbert Lins, at the Council's attitude in yesterday’s trilogue. We seemed to be back to before 2009, when the Lisbon Treaty recognized our role as co-legislators”.

“As a Parliament, we have always shown broad flexibility and willingness to compromise, meeting the demands of the various member states. However”, De Castro explains, “the offer of an agreement put on the table by surprise yesterday by the Spanish presidency is an insult to the work done in recent months. Not only do we find nothing of our negotiating prerogatives, but we are proposed a package with strong steps backward even compared to the Commission’s initial proposal: from strengthening the role of consortia, to the protection of GIs used as ingredients and in online markets, to the wine package. It is clear that, on this basis, it is difficult to reach an agreement to support a more competitive agri-food sector capable of creating added value, to the benefit of our rural areas. This is why we hope a swerve will come from the Spanish Presidency, supported by the countries that have longest invested in geographical indications, the symbol of quality agribusiness, so that a real mediation point can be found between the positions of the three institutions between now and the trialogue on October 24, in the presence of the President of the Council of Agricultural Ministers, the Spaniard Luis Planas, and the Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski”, concluded MEP and member of the Agriculture Commission at the European Parliament Paolo De Castro.