BAKGRUNN (fra kommisjonsforordningen)

(1) Regulation (EU) 2024/1143 establishes a single common Union framework for the registration and protection of geographical indications in three agricultural sectors: wine, spirit drinks and agricultural products. To this purpose, Regulation (EU) 2024/1143 amended or repealed, to the extent necessary, those Union acts that provided for separate frameworks in those sectors. Notably, Regulation (EU) 2024/1143 amended Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council2 concerning geographical indications in the wine sector, and Regulation (EU) 2019/787 of the European Parliament and of the Council3 concerning geographical indications in the spirit drinks sector, and it repealed Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council4 concerning geographical indications in the agricultural products and foodstuffs sector. 

(2) Regulation (EU) 2024/1143 empowers the Commission to adopt delegated and implementing acts for all three agricultural sectors: wine, spirit drinks and agricultural products. 

(3) In order to ensure the smooth functioning of the market of wine, spirit drinks and agricultural products in the new legal framework and in particular to simplify and rationalise the functioning of the geographical indications system for wine, spirit drinks and agricultural products, as well as the system of the traditional specialities guaranteed, certain rules should be adopted by means of delegates acts. (

4) In order to increase transparency and legal certainty in opposition procedures, the Commission should timely inform applicants of any opposition received against their applications. 

(5) In order to have clear steps in the opposition procedure, it is necessary to identify precisely the starting date for the appropriate consultations between the opponent and the applicant in view of reaching an agreement and to specify the obligations of the applicant Member State in case it considers that the changes to the application, following an agreement reached in the context of an opposition procedure, are substantial. 

(6) For the sake of transparency and in order to improve quality and uniformity of information concerning geographical indications, an application for approval of a Union amendment of the product specification, for which a single document or equivalent has never been published in the Official Journal of the European Union, should include a single document complying with the respective requirements for the single documents in the wine, spirit drinks and agricultural products sectors. 

(7) A procedure for the approval of standard amendments and temporary amendments should be established to allow Member States to carry out an appropriate assessment of the applications and to guarantee a consistent approach across Member States, including for cross-border geographical indications. The accuracy and exhaustiveness of the assessment by the Member States should be equivalent to the accuracy and exhaustiveness required for the assessment process within the procedure governing applications for registration of a geographical indication. 

(8) Standard and temporary amendments related to geographical indications of third countries should follow the approach provided for Member States, and the approval decision should be taken in accordance with the system in force in the third country in question. 

(9) With a view to ensuring legal certainty, any immediately applicable national judicial or administrative decision annulling a decision of approval of a standard amendment should be communicated to the Commission with the purpose of having it published in the Official Journal of the European Union and thus to inform all users and control authorities in the Union. 

(10) For the sake of legal certainty and efficient management of the system, detailed rules concerning requirements and deadlines for the communications of approved standard or temporary amendments should be provided. 

(11) It is necessary to lay down rules establishing coordination between the procedures for amendments to a product specification in cases where applications concerning a Union amendment and a standard amendment are pending at the same time before the Commission and the Member State’s competent authority, respectively. Since both applications amend the same product specification, while following two different parallel procedures having a different timing, rules should be laid down that avoid inconsistencies.

(12) Even though standard amendments to a product specification are approved by Member States following a specific procedure which is different from the procedure for approval of Union amendments, for which the Commission is responsible, they should be dealt with together with the Union amendments when they are considered as inextricably linked to them, i.e. where one standard amendment results in, or is triggered by, a Union amendment. This exception should allow the related subjects to be treated simultaneously under one administrative procedure, thus offering efficiency and coherence of procedure. 

(13) In order to ensure a consistent approach to restrictions on the origin of the raw materials for protected geographical indications, justification with respect to the link should be also required, where requirements that specific steps of production must take place in the defined geographical area result in restrictions. 

(14) In order to ensure that product specifications for traditional specialities guaranteed only provide relevant and succinct information and to avoid excessively voluminous applications for registration or applications for approval of an amendment to a product specification of a traditional speciality guaranteed, a limit to the length of product specifications should be laid down. 

(15) For the sake of legal certainty and clarity, the approval by Commission of an application for approval of an amendment to a product specification of a traditional speciality guaranteed should only cover amendments that are duly described. 

(16) In the light of commercial practices, similarly to the provisions adopted for Geographical Indications in Regulation (EU) 2024/1143, clarity is required on the use of a Traditional Speciality Guaranteed in the sale name of a processed product of which the product designated by the traditional speciality guaranteed is an ingredient. It should be ensured that such use is made in accordance with fair commercial practices. 

(17) The rules adopted on the basis of those empowerments should provide a single and consistent legal framework supplementing Regulation (EU) 2024/1143 as regards the protection and the procedures for registration of a name and for amendment of a product specification related to Geographical Indications and Traditional Specialities Guaranteed. Although based on different empowerments provided for in Regulation (EU) 2024/1143, these rules constitute a unique regulatory system. 

(18) As regards Geographical Indications, the empowerments concern the procedures and the deadline for the opposition procedure, the Union amendments for which no single document was published, the relationship between Union and standard amendment, the procedure and content for standard amendments and, for agricultural products only, supplementary conditions with regard to the sourcing of raw materials. As regards Traditional Specialities Guaranteed, the empowerments concern the rules which limit the information in the product specification, the procedures and the deadline for the opposition procedure, the procedure for amendment to a product specification and the rules on the use of traditional specialities guaranteed designating a product used as an ingredient in the name of a processed product. 

(19) The essential elements of the procedures and of the protection concerning Geographical Indications and Traditional Specialities Guaranteed are all provided for in Regulation (EU) 2024/1143. In particular, for Geographical Indications, one of the main objectives of that Regulation is to provide for a unitary and exhaustive system of protection, based on the same procedural rules and managed by the same Committee.The consistency of such a system would be better ensured if rules would be provided for in the same act. In light of the above, for the consistency of the overall system, all the supplementary rules of general application concerning non-essential elements of the legislative act necessary to have the system for Geographical Indications and Traditional Specialities Guaranteed properly functioning should be gathered in the same act. 

(20) The rules adopted on the basis of these empowerments have the same objective, which is to facilitate and make smoother the application of the unitary system of registration, amendment and protection of Geographical Indications and Traditional Specialities Guaranteed at all the different level and steps. These rules are all part of the same workflow designed to protect and manage Geographical Indications and Traditional Specialities Guarantee in the Union. 

(21) Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) No 664/2014 5 , which supplements Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012, should be repealed to delete all the provisions which would be in conflict with the provisions of this Regulation, which also apply to the agricultural products sector,