Agenzie

On Tuesday 8 November, members of the European Parliament Committee on Agriculture welcomed the draft report by *Paolo De Castro* (S&D, Italian) on EU geographical indications (GIs) for wines, spirit drinks and agricultural products.

Herbert Dorfmann (EPP, Italian), Claude Gruffat (Greens/EFA, French) and Irène Tolleret (Renew Europe, French) reiterated their reservations about an increased role for the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO).

Ms Tolleret said that “most of the competences” of the Directorate-General for Agriculture (DG AGRI) in the area of GI management “should be maintained”. “It will not be difficult to find a broad consensus in our committee” on *Mr De Castro’s* report, she said.
She was of the belief that the wine element of the GI proposal did not lead to a simplification of the legislation. Maintaining wine GIs in the Common Market Organisation (CMO) regulation would, in Ms Tolleret’s view, be “a good solution to guarantee the specificity of this sector and the simplification of the legislation”. Finally, she welcomed the broad definition suggested by Mr De Castro on the notion of evocation (see EUROPE B13047A7).
Claude Gruffat, for his part, was rather sceptical about the need to reform GIs. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)