Financial implications of maintaining parallel registers for the protection of geographical indication products

Question écrite de - Commission européenne

Question de ,

Diffusée le 13 février 2018

Subject: Financial implications of maintaining parallel registers for the protection of geographical indication products

Several EU Member States (France, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Hungary, Portugal, Italy and Slovakia) are parties to the Lisbon Agreement for the Protection of Appellations of Origin and their International Registration. Are there Member States on which penalties have already been imposed for maintaining protection under the Lisbon Agreement for products that could be protected and/or are protected under Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012? In cases where the Commission proposes a financial penalty, how is this determined?

Réponse - Commission européenne

Diffusée le 18 avril 2018

Answer given by Mr Hogan on behalf of the Commission

(19 April 2018)

There are no Member States on which penalties have been imposed for maintaining protection under the Lisbon Agreement for products that could be protected and/or are protected under Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012 (1).

On 26 January 2018 the Commission launched an infringement procedure under Article 258 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) against Bulgaria for maintaining a national registration system of protection for geographical indications after its accession to the EU (2), as such a national system is not compatible with the EU rules on quality schemes for agricultural products and foodstuffs, which provide for a uniform and exhaustive system of protection for geographical indications falling within their scope.

The Commission is not aware of other Member States maintaining a parallel national registration system for geographical indications falling within the scope of Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012 and is therefore not considering taking any such steps against other Member States.

⋅1∙ Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 November 2012 on quality schemes for agricultural products and foodstuffs,

OJ L 343, 14.12.2012.

⋅2∙ MEMO-18-349.