In early May, the EU Parliament and Council concluded a political agreement to protect geographical indications (GIs) for craft and industrial products, such as ceramics from La Bisbal or from Talavera, embroidery from Lagartera, inlaid pottery from Granada, damascene from Toledo, cuckoo clocks, etc.
Currently, although some EU countries do protect these types of GIs, there is no EU-wide protection, as there is for agricultural products and foodstuffs, wines and spirits. GIs for the latter products are called “agri GIs†because of their agricultural component, while those for craft and industrial products are known as “non-agri GIsâ€.
The agreement refers to the proposed Regulation which was presented in April 2022, which in turn was the result of consultations with both states and EU public opinion on this issue (we already commented this in our former article Geographical Indications (GIs): the turn of the screw?) and experts in this sector. This agreement on “non-agri GIs†is characterised by the following:
- It shares the approach to the regulation of “agri GIsâ€, as it will be possible to obtain a single protection title that will be valid in all EU countries. This EU title will replace any national titles that may exist and both Protected Designations of Origin (PDO) and Protected Geographical Indications (PGI) will be registered.
