The European Parliament has adopted, by an overwhelming majority, its position on the ‘Geographical Indications for wine, spirit drinks and agricultural products regulation’ proposal. Thanks to the S&D Group, this regulation will be remembered as one of the few legislative acts in this mandate aiming at making the agriculture and the agri-food sector more competitive, sustainable, and integrated.

European Parliament rapporteur and S&D MEP, Paolo De Castro, said:

“The position of the Parliament is not meant to be revolutionary, but a concrete evolution of the Geographical Indications (GI) system that alone is already worth around €80 billion at EU level. This GI system, recognized worldwide as an excellence of the EU agri-food sector, represents not only an economic and social heritage but also a crucial tool capable of creating value without the need to invest any public funds.

“As the European Parliament, with no political distinction, we have the duty to safeguard, improve, and promote this heritage. Hence, we have been working to introduce some crucial improvements to guarantee an adequate income for quality producers that are contributing to rural development goals.

“In particular, our work at Parliament level has focused on four main pillars: strengthening the role of the producers groups, including through so-called ‘GI tourism’; better and stronger protection of GI products; simplification of the administrative burden and clarification of the European Union Intellectual Property Office role (EUIPO); and greater sustainability and transparency toward consumers.

“Thanks to the strong mandate voted on today, we now have a great chance to reach an ambitious agreement with the Council on a stronger GI system that can truly meet the needs of our European producers”.