UIV e Federvini: good PGI in EU ComAgri

Unione italiana vini (Uiv), expresses full satisfaction with the outcome of this morning’s vote in Strasbourg in the Agriculture Commission of the Europarliament on the Geographical Indications Reform. The 46 amendments approved,” Uiv stresses, “are in fact widely shared with the position of the association that represents 85 percent of Italian wine exports.

Among the key points contained in the historic reform brought forward by rapporteur Paolo de Castro and also supported by the other Italian MEPs are the presence of wine within the reform, the definition of Igp wines, the protection of geographical names against possible evocations (such as, for example, the issue of Prosek) and the new voluntary provisions on wine sustainability. All the amendments, strongly requested and shared by UIV, met with a positive outcome in ComAgri today, and this is cause for applause towards a European institution that has well understood the importance of the new EU regulation on PDO and PGI products. The danger of keeping wine detached from the system of protection of quality products has been averted,” Uiv added, “and this is the most important victory, but not the only one: the Reform will allow for significant progress in the protection of designations in the international sphere, clarification of production rules on IGT wines and simplification of procedures related to specifications.

Federvini also applauds the excellent work of Italian MEPs, led by rapporteur Paolo De Castro, on the reform of the EU Geographical Indications system, held today at the Agriculture Commission (Comagri) of the European Parliament. This is a crucial step for the future of the European wine sector and, more generally, of all quality agrifood excellence.

“The amendments approved this morning represent a unique opportunity to arrive at a general reorganization of the regulations, filling the gaps that some recent events had highlighted,” said Federvini President Micaela Pallini, “as witnessed by the Prošek case and the attacks on Balsamic Vinegar of Modena by Slovenia and Cyprus. We would like to thank the European Parliament for the attention shown to the sectors represented by Federvini, in particular for its willingness to reaffirm the centrality of the wine sector within the new single regulation on quality products, as well as for wanting to secure some peculiarities that deeply characterize the Italian wine sector, such as the definition of wine to PGI,” – concluded Pallini -.

Federdoc President Bonaldi also commented, “It is important to have strengthened the very concept of GIs, while avoiding the transfer of the management of specifications to EUIPO.” An important vote with which the AGRI Commission today reaffirmed the fundamental importance of the protection of Geographical Indications. “A decision that we welcome because it strengthens the protection of GIs and sanctions the stop to the transfer of the management of specifications to the EUIPO, an outsourcing of competences that would have represented a serious vulnus for the entire system. The peculiarity of the wine sector, characterized by a quality policy with specific regulatory tools, was confirmed. Today’s vote on the reform of Geographical Indications in fact guarantees a higher level of protection for GIs, with specific reference to online protection and their use as ingredients in elaborated and processed composite products. The hope now,” Bonaldi concluded, “is that the orientation that resulted from today’s vote will represent a precise track for future decisions, with special attention to the ‘wine package’ that requires specificities that many seem to miss.”

Also evident in the new European regulation on GIs is the desire to streamline and simplify procedures for the recognition and modification of production specifications, as well as extended protection even in cases of online evocation and usurpation.

Now the process foresees, before the summer, a debate in the plenary session of the European Parliament and finally – by the end of the year – trilogue meetings (Parliament, Commission and Council) to finally approve the new single European text on quality productions.