Considerations on COM(2022)134 - EU geographical indications for wine, spirit drinks and agricultural products, and quality schemes for agricultural products - Main contents
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| dossier | COM(2022)134 - EU geographical indications for wine, spirit drinks and agricultural products, and quality schemes for agricultural products. |
|---|---|
| document | COM(2022)134  |
| date | April 11, 2024 |
(2) Commission Communication of 20 May 2020 on A Farm to Fork Strategy - for a fair, healthy and environmentally-friendly food system which called for a transition to sustainable food systems, also calls to strengthen the legislative framework on geographical indications and, where appropriate, include specific sustainability criteria. In the Communication, the Commission committed to strengthen, among other players, the position of producers of products with geographical indications, their cooperatives and producer organisations in the food supply chain.
(3) In its Communication of 25 November 2020 titled ‘Making the most of the EU’s innovative potential – An intellectual property action plan to support the EU’s recovery and resilience’, the Commission undertook to look at ways to strengthen, modernise, streamline and better enforce geographical indications for agricultural products, wine and spirit drinks.
(4) The quality and diversity of the Union’s wine, spirit drinks and agricultural production is one of its important strengths, giving a competitive advantage to the Union’s producers and making a major contribution to its living cultural and gastronomic heritage. This is due to the skills and determination of Union producers who have kept traditions alive while taking into account the developments of new production methods and material.
(5) Citizens and consumers in the Union increasingly demand quality as well as traditional products. They are also concerned to maintain the diversity of agricultural production in the Union. This generates a demand for wine, spirit drinks and agricultural products with identifiable specific characteristics, in particular those linked to their geographical origin.
(6) The protection of natural persons in relation to the processing of personal data is a fundamental right. Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and of the Council 23 provides rules on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data by the Union institutions, bodies, offices and agencies and on the free movement of such data. The roles of the Commission and of the Member States in relation to the processing of personal data in the procedures they are competent for need to be clearly defined in order to ensure a high level of protection. Processing of personal data is lawful when it is necessary for the performance of tasks carried out in the public interests. Procedures for registration, amendment or cancellation of geographical indications and traditional specialities guaranteed carried out in the framework of this Regulation, Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council 24 and Regulation (EU) 2019/787 of the European Parliament and of the Council 25 should be properly carried out. Processing references concerning applicants in a registration, amendment or cancellation procedure, opponents, beneficiaries of transitional periods and bodies and natural persons delegated for certain official control tasks, in the context of the procedures of registration, amendment or cancellation of geographical indications and traditional specialities guaranteed, is necessary for the correct management of these procedures. In addition, those procedures have a public nature. Transparency is necessary to allow fair competition between the operators and to publicly identify the private and public economic interests linked to these procedures. With a view to minimising the exposure of personal data, the documents to be submitted in the course of the relevant procedures should as far as possible avoid requirements for submission of personal data. Nonetheless, the Commission and the Member States may need to process information that contain personal data, such as personal names and contact details. Within this framework, for reasons of public interest and in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2018/1725, the Commission and the Member States should be allowed to process such personal data and to disclose or make it public when this is needed to identify applicants in a registration, amendment or cancellation procedure, opponents in an opposition procedure, beneficiaries of a transitional period granted to derogate to the protection of a registered name and bodies delegated to carry out the verification on compliance with product specification.
(7) For the purpose of applying Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 the Commission is the authority with whom the owners of personal data may exercise the related rights, by sending comments, raising questions or concerns, or submitting a complaint regarding the collection and use of the personal data. It should, therefore, be clarified that the Commission is considered the controller within the meaning of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 in relation to the processing of personal data in the procedures for which it is responsible under this Regulation, Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013, Regulation (EU) 2019/787 and the provisions adopted pursuant thereto.
(8) Regulation (EU) 2016/679 26 of the European Parliament and of the Council applies to the processing of personal data carried out by Member States in the course of the relevant procedures. For the purpose of applying that Regulation the competent authorities of the Member States are the authorities with whom the owners of personal data may exercise the related rights, by sending comments, raising questions or concerns, or submitting a complaint regarding the collection and use of the personal data. It should, therefore, be clarified that the Member States are considered controllers within the meaning of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 in relation to the processing of personal data in the procedures for which they are responsible under this Regulation, Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013, Regulation (EU) 2019/787 and the provisions adopted pursuant thereto.
(9) Ensuring uniform recognition and protection throughout the Union for the intellectual property rights related to names protected in the Union is a priority that can be effectively achieved only at Union level. Geographical indications protecting the names of wines, spirit drinks and agricultural products having characteristics, attributes or reputation linked to their place of production are an exclusive Union’s competence. A unitary and exclusive system of geographical indications therefore needs to be provided. Geographical indications are a collective right held by all eligible producers in a designated area willing to adhere to a product specification. Producers acting collectively have more powers than individual producers and take collective responsibilities to manage their geographical indications, including responding to societal demands for products resulting from sustainable production. Operating geographical indications reward producers fairly for their efforts to produce a diverse range of quality products. At the same time, this can benefit the rural economy, which is particularly the case in areas with natural or other specific constraints, such as mountain areas and the most remote regions, where the farming sector accounts for a significant part of the economy and production costs are high. In this way, quality schemes are able to contribute to and complement rural development policy as well as market and income support policies of the CAP. In particular, they may contribute to the developments in the farming sector and, especially, disadvantaged areas. A Union framework that protects geographical indications by providing for their inclusion in a register at Union level facilitates the development of the agricultural sector, since the resulting, more uniform approach ensures fair competition between the producers of products bearing such indications and enhances the credibility of the products in the consumers’ eyes. The system of geographical indications aims at enabling consumers to make more informed purchasing choices and, through labelling and advertising, helping them to correctly identify their products on the market. Geographical indications, being a type of intellectual property right, help operators and companies valorise their intangible assets. To avoid creating unfair conditions of competition and to sustain the internal market, any producer, including a third country producer, should be able to use a registered name and market products designated as geographical indications throughout the Union and in electronic commerce, provided that the product concerned complies with the requirements of the relevant specification and that the producer is covered by a system of controls. In light of the experience gained from the implementation of Regulations (EU) No 1308/2013, (EU) 2019/787 and (EU) No 1151/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council 27 , there is a need to address certain legal issues, to clarify and simplify some rules and to streamline the procedures.
(10) In order to comply with the definition of agricultural products in the international framework, i.e. World Trade Organisation, the use of the combined nomenclature should be provided for geographical indications.
(11) The Union has for some time been aiming at simplifying the regulatory framework of the Common Agricultural Policy. This approach should also apply to regulations in the field of geographical indications, without calling into question the specific characteristics of each sector. In order to simplify the lengthy registration and amendment procedures, harmonised procedural rules for geographical indications for wine, spirit drinks and agricultural products should be laid down in a single legal instrument, while maintaining product specific provisions for wine in Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013, for spirit drinks in Regulation (EU) 2019/787 and for agricultural products in this Regulation. The procedures for the registration, amendments to the product specification and cancellation of the registration in respect of geographical indications originating in the Union, including opposition procedures, should be carried out by the Member States and the Commission. The Member States and the Commission should be responsible for distinct stages of each procedure. Member States should be responsible for the first stage of the procedure, which consists of receiving the application from the producer group, assessing it, including running a national opposition procedure, and, following the results of the assessment, submitting the application to the Commission. The Commission should be responsible for scrutinising the application in the second stage of the procedure, including running a worldwide opposition procedure, and taking a decision on granting the protection to the geographical indication or not. Geographical indications should be registered only at Union level. However, with effect from the date of application with the Commission for registration at Union level, Member States should be able to grant transitional protection at national level without affecting the internal market or international trade. The protection afforded by this Regulation upon registration should be equally available to geographical indications of third countries that meet the corresponding criteria and that are protected in their country of origin. The Commission should carry out the corresponding procedures for geographical indications originating in third countries.
(12) To contribute to the transition to a sustainable food system and respond to societal demands for sustainable, environmentally and climate friendly, animal welfare ensuring, resource efficient, socially and ethically responsible production methods, producers of geographical indications should be encouraged to adhere to sustainability standards that are more stringent than the mandatory ones and go beyond good practice. Such specific requirements could be set out in the product specification.
(13) To ensure coherent decision-making as regards applications for protection and judicial challenges against them, submitted in the national procedure, the Commission should be informed in a timely and regular manner when procedures are launched before national courts or other bodies concerning an application for registration forwarded by the Member State to the Commission and of their final results. For the same reason, where a Member State considers that a national decision on which the application for protection is based is likely to be invalidated as a result of national judicial proceedings, it should inform the Commission of that assessment. If the Member State requests the suspension of the scrutiny of an application at Union level, the Commission should be exempted from the obligation to meet the deadline for scrutiny established therein. In order to protect the applicant from vexatious legal actions and to preserve the applicant’s right to secure the protection of a name within a reasonable time, the exemption should be limited to cases in which the application for registration has been invalidated at national level by an immediately applicable but not final judicial decision or in which the Member State considers that the action to challenge the validity of the application is based on valid grounds.
(14) To allow operators, whose interests are affected by the registration of a name, to continue to use that name for a limited period of time, while contravening the protection regime established in Article 27, specific derogations for the use of the names in the form of transitional periods should be granted. Such periods can also be allowed to overcome temporary difficulties and with the long-term objective of ensuring that all producers comply with the product specification.
(15) To ensure transparency and uniformity across Member States, it is necessary to establish and maintain an electronic Union register of geographical indications, registered as protected designations of origin or protected geographical indications. The register should provide information to consumers and to those involved in trade. The register should be an electronic database stored within an information system, and should be accessible to the public.
(16) The Union negotiates international agreements, including those concerning the protection of designations of origin and geographical indications, with its trade partners. In order to facilitate the provision to the public of information about the names protected by those international agreements, and in particular to ensure protection and control of the use to which those names are put, those names may be entered in the Union register of geographical indications. Unless specifically identified as designations of origin in such international agreements, the names should be entered in the register as protected geographical indications.
(17) For the optimal functioning of the internal market, it is important that producers and other operators concerned, authorities and consumers may quickly and easily have access to the relevant information concerning a registered protected designation of origin or protected geographical indication. This information should include, where applicable, the information on the identity of the producer group recognised at national level.
(18) Protection should be granted to names entered in the Union register of geographical indications with the aim of ensuring that they are used fairly and in order to prevent practices liable to mislead consumers. In order to strengthen the protection of geographical indications and to combat counterfeiting more effectively, the protection of designations of origin and geographical indications should also apply to domain names on the internet.
(19) To establish whether products are comparable to the products registered as a geographical indication, account should be taken of all relevant factors. Those should include whether the products have common objective characteristics, such as method of production, physical appearance or use of the same raw material; under which circumstances the products are utilised from the point of view of the relevant public; whether they are frequently distributed through the same channels; and whether they are subject to similar marketing rules.
(20) In light of commercial practices and Union jurisprudence clarity is required on the use of a geographical indication in the sale name of a processed product of which the product designated by the geographical indication is an ingredient. It should be ensured that such use is made in accordance with fair commercial practices and does not weaken, dilute or is not detrimental to the reputation of the product bearing the geographical indication. A consent of a large majority of the producers of geographical indications concerned should be required to allow such a use.
(21) Rules concerning the continued use of generic names should be clarified so that generic terms that are similar to or form part of a name or term that is protected should retain their generic status.
(22) The scope of the protection granted under this Regulation should be clarified, in particular with regard to those limitations on registration of new trade marks set out in Directive (EU) 2015/2436 of the European Parliament and of the Council 28 that conflict with the registration of geographical indications. Such clarification is also necessary with regard to the holders of prior intellectual property rights, in particular those concerning trade marks and homonymous names registered as geographical indications.
(23) Producer groups play an essential role in the application process for the registration of geographical indications, as well as in the amendment of specifications and cancellation requests. They should be equipped with the means to better identify and market the specific characteristics of their products. The role of the producer group should hence be clarified.
(24) As producers of products bearing geographical indications are mostly small or medium size enterprises, they face competition from other operators along the food supply chain which can create unfair competition between local producers and those operating on a more extended scale. In this context, in the interest of all the producers concerned, it is necessary to allow one single producer group to perform specific actions in the name of the producers. To that purpose, the category of the recognised producer group should be established, together with the criteria necessary to qualify as a recognised producer group and the related specific additional rights, in particular in order to provide recognised producer groups with the right tools to better enforce their intellectual property rights against unfair practices.
(25) The relationship between internet domain names and protection of geographical indications should be clarified as regards the scope of the application of the remedy measures, the recognition of geographical indications in dispute resolution, and the fair use of domain names. Persons having a legitimate interest on a geographical indication applied for registration before the registration of the domain name should be empowered to request for the revocation or the transfer of the domain name in case of conflict.
(26) The relationship between trademarks and geographical indications should be clarified in relation to criteria for the rejection of trademark applications, the invalidation of trademarks and the coexistence between trademarks and geographical indications.
(27) In order to avoid creating unfair conditions of competition, any producer, including a third-country producer, should be able to use a registered geographical indication, provided that the product concerned complies with the requirements of the relevant product specification or single document or an equivalent to the latter, i.e. a complete summary of the product specification. The system set up by the Member States should also guarantee that producers complying with the rules are entitled to be covered by the verification of compliance of the product specification.
(28) The symbols, indications and abbreviations identifying a registered geographical indication, and the rights therein pertaining to the Union, should be protected in the Union as well as in third countries with the aim of ensuring that they are used on genuine products and that consumers are not misled as to the qualities of products.
(29) The labelling of wine, spirit drinks and agricultural products should be subject to the general rules laid down in Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council 29 , and in particular the provisions aimed at preventing labelling that may confuse or mislead consumers.
(30) The use of Union symbols or indications on the packaging of products designated by a geographical indication should be made obligatory in order to make this category of products, and the guarantees attached to them, better known to consumers and to permit easier identification of these products on the market, thereby facilitating checks. However, in view of the specific nature of products covered by this Regulation, special provisions concerning labelling should be maintained for wine and spirit drinks. The use of such symbols or indications should remain voluntary for third country geographical indications and designations of origin.
(31) The added value of the geographical indications is based on consumer trust. The system of geographical indications significantly relies on self-control, due diligence and individual responsibility of producers, while it is the role of the competent authorities of the Member States to take the necessary steps to prevent or stop the use of names of products, which are in breach of the rules governing geographical indications. The role of the Commission is to intervene in case of a systemic failure to apply Union law. Geographical indications should be subject to the system of official controls, in line with the principles set out in Regulation (EU) 2017/625 of the European Parliament and of the Council 30 , which should include a system of controls at all stages of production, processing and distribution. Each operator should be subject to a control system that verifies compliance with the product specification. Taking into account that wine is subject to specific controls defined in the sectoral legislation, this Regulation should lay down controls for spirit drinks and agricultural products only.
(32) In order to ensure that they are impartial and effective, the competent authorities designated to perform the verification of the compliance with the product specification should meet a number of operational criteria. Provisions on delegating some competences of performing specific control tasks to product certification bodies should be envisaged to facilitate the task of the control authorities and make the system more effective.
(33) Information on the competent authorities and product certification bodies should be made public to ensure the transparency and allow interested parties to contact them.
(34) European standards developed by the European Committee for Standardisation and international standards developed by the International Organisation for Standardisation should be used for the accreditation of the control bodies as well as by those bodies for their operations. The accreditation of those bodies should take place in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 765/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council 31 .
(35) Enforcement of geographical indications in the marketplace is important to prevent fraudulent and deceptive practices thus ensuring that producers are properly rewarded for the added value of their products bearing a geographical indication and that illegal users of those geographical indications are prevented from selling their products. Controls should be carried out based on risk assessment or notifications from operators, and appropriate administrative and judicial steps should be taken to prevent or stop the use of names on products or services that contravene the protected geographical indications.
(36) Online platforms have become increasingly used for sales of products, including of those designated as geographical indications, and in some cases they might represent an important space as regards preventing fraud. In this regard, this Regulation should establish rules to ensure appropriate labelling of products sold via online platforms, and to provide powers to Member States to disable access to the content that contravenes the rules. These rules should be without prejudice to Regulation (EU) No 2022/XX of the European Parliament and of the Council 32 .
(37) Taking into account that a product designated by the geographical indication produced in one Member State might be sold in another Member State, administrative assistance between Member States should be ensured to allow effective controls and its practicalities should be laid down.
(38) For the optimal functioning of the internal market, it is important that producers quickly and easily demonstrate in several contexts that they are authorised to use a protected name, such as at customs controls, market inspections or on demand by trade operators. For this purpose, an official certificate, or other proof of certification, of entitlement to produce the product designated by a geographical indication should be put at the disposal of the producer.
(39) The procedures for registration, amendment and cancellation of geographical indications, including the scrutiny and the opposition procedure, should be carried out in the most efficient way. This can be achieved by using the assistance for the scrutiny of the applications provided by the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). While a partial outsourcing to EUIPO has been considered, the Commission would remain responsible for registration, amendment and cancellation, due to a strong relation with the Common Agricultural Policy and to the expertise needed to ensure that specificities of wine, spirit drinks and agricultural products are adequately assessed.
(40) Criteria should be set to assess the performance of the EUIPO. These criteria should ensure quality, coherence and efficiency of the assistance provided. The Commission should prepare a report to the Parliament and to the Council on the results and experience of the execution of these tasks by the EUIPO.
(41) In the light of existing practice, the two different instruments for identifying the link between the product and its geographical origin, namely the designation of origin and the geographical indication, should be maintained. Rules for and definitions of plant varieties and animal breeds should be clarified to better understand their articulation with geographical indications in case of conflict. Rules on sourcing of feed and of raw materials should remain unchanged.
(42) A product bearing a geographical indication should meet certain conditions set out in the product specification. For such information to be easily understandable also to interested parties, the product specification should be summarised in a single document.
(43) To implement the rules related to geographical indications, the Commission should be assisted by a committee, composed by the delegates of the Member States.
(44) The specific objective of the scheme for traditional specialities guaranteed is to help the producers of traditional products to communicate to consumers the value-adding attributes of their product. In order to avoid creating unfair conditions of competition, any producer, including a producer from a third country, should be able to use a registered name of a traditional speciality guaranteed, provided that the product concerned complies with the requirements of the relevant specification and the producer is covered by a system of controls.
(45) As only a few names have been registered, the current scheme for traditional specialities guaranteed has failed to realise its potential. Current provisions should therefore be improved, clarified and sharpened in order to make the scheme more understandable, operational and attractive to potential applicants. To ensure that names of genuine traditional products are registered, the criteria and conditions for registration of a name should be adapted, in particular by removing the condition that traditional specialities guaranteed have a specific character.
(46) To ensure that traditional specialities guaranteed comply with their specification and are consistent, producers organised into groups should themselves define the product in a specification. The option of registering a name as a traditional speciality guaranteed should be open to third country producers.
(47) To ensure transparency, the traditional specialities guaranteed should be entered in the register.
(48) In order to avoid creating unfair conditions of competition, any producer, including a producer from a third country, should be able to use a registered name of a traditional speciality guaranteed, provided that the product concerned complies with the requirements of the relevant specification and the producer is covered by a system of controls. For traditional specialities guaranteed produced within the Union, the Union symbol should be indicated on the labelling and it should be possible to associate it with the indication ‘traditional speciality guaranteed’. The use of the names, the Union symbol and the indication should be regulated to ensure a uniform approach across the internal market.
(49) Traditional specialities guaranteed should be effectively protected on the market so that their producers are properly rewarded for their added value and that illegal users of traditional specialities guaranteed are prevented from selling their products.
(50) In order not to mislead the consumers, registered traditional specialities guaranteed should be protected against any misuse or imitation, including as regards products used as ingredients, or against any other practice liable to mislead the consumer. Pursuing the same objective, rules should be laid down for specific uses of traditional specialities guaranteed, notably as regards the use of terms that are generic in the Union, labelling which contains or comprises the denomination of a plant variety or animal breed and trade marks.
(51) Participation in the traditional speciality guaranteed scheme should ensure that any operator complying with the rules of this scheme is entitled to be covered by the verification of compliance with the product specification.
(52) The procedures for the registration, amendments to the product specification and the cancellation of the registration in respect of traditional specialities guaranteed originating in the Union, including opposition procedures, should be carried out by the Member States and the Commission. The Member States and the Commission should be responsible for distinct stages of each procedure. Member States should be responsible for the first stage of the procedure, which consists of receiving the application from the producer group, assessing it, including running a national opposition procedure, and, following the results of the assessment, submitting the Union application to the Commission. The Commission should be responsible for scrutinising the application, including running a worldwide opposition procedure, and taking a decision on granting the traditional specialities guaranteed protection or not. The protection afforded by this Regulation upon registration should be equally available to traditional specialities guaranteed of third countries that meet the corresponding criteria and that are protected in their country of origin. The Commission should also carry out the corresponding procedures for traditional specialities guaranteed originating in third countries.
(53) The optional quality terms scheme was introduced by Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012. It refers to specific horizontal characteristics, of one or more categories of products, farming methods or processing attributes which apply in specific areas. The optional quality term ‘mountain product’ has met the conditions laid down for optional quality terms and was established by that Regulation. It has provided mountain producers with an effective tool to better market their product and to reduce the actual risks of consumer confusion as to the mountain provenance of products on the market. The possibility for producers to use optional quality terms should be maintained, as the scheme has not yet fully met its potential in the Member States due to a short time of its application.
(54) To implement the rules related to traditional specialities guaranteed and optional quality terms, laid down in this Regulation, the Commission should be assisted by a committee, composed of the delegates of the Member States.
(55) Provisions concerning geographical indications in Regulations (EU) No 1308/2013, concerning the wine sector, and (EU) 2019/787, concerning the spirit drinks sector, need to be amended in order to align them to the common rules on registration, amendment, opposition, cancellation, protection and controls of the geographical indications set out in this Regulation. In particular for wine, additional changes are needed to the definition of protected geographical indications in line with the Trade Related Agreement on Intellectual Property. For reasons of consistency with this Regulation, the provision on the tasks of the EUIPO laid down in Regulation (EU) 2017/1001 of the European Parliament and of the Council 33 should also be amended.
(56) In order to supplement or amend certain non-essential elements of this Regulation, the power to adopt acts in accordance with Article 290 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union should be delegated to the Commission in respect of defining sustainability standards and laying down criteria for the recognition of existing sustainability standards; clarifying or adding items to be supplied as part of accompanying information; entrusting the EUIPO with the tasks related to scrutiny for opposition and the opposition procedure, operation of the register, publication of standard amendments to a product specification, consultation in the context of cancellation procedure, establishment and management of an alert system informing applicants about the availability of their geographical indication as a domain name, scrutiny of third country geographical indications other than geographical indications under the Geneva Act of the Lisbon Agreement on Appellations of Origin and Geographical Indications 34 , proposed for protection pursuant to international negotiations or international agreements; establishing appropriate criteria for monitoring performance of the EUIPO in the execution of the tasks entrusted to it; laying down additional rules on the use of geographical indications to identify ingredients in processed products; laying down additional rules for determining the generic status of terms; establishing the restrictions and derogations with regard to the sourcing of feed in the case of a designation of origin; establishing restrictions and derogations with regard to the slaughtering of live animals or with regard to the sourcing of raw materials; laying down rules for determining the use of the denomination of a plant variety or of an animal breed; laying down rules which limit the information contained in the product specification for geographical indications and traditional specialities guaranteed; laying down further details of the eligibility criteria for traditional specialities guaranteed; laying down additional rules to provide for appropriate certification and accreditation procedures to apply in respect of product certification bodies; laying down additional rules to further detail protection of traditional specialities guaranteed; laying down for traditional specialities guaranteed additional rules for determining the generic status of terms, conditions for use of plant variety and animal breed denominations, and relation to intellectual property rights; defining additional rules for joint applications concerning more than one national territory and complementing the rules of the application process for traditional specialities guaranteed guaranteed; complementing the rules for the opposition procedure for traditional specialities guaranteed to establish detailed procedures and deadlines; supplementing the rules regarding the amendment application process for traditional specialities guaranteed; supplementing the rules regarding the cancellation process for traditional specialities guaranteed; laying down detailed rules relating to the criteria for optional quality terms; reserving an additional optional quality term, laying down its conditions of use; laying down derogations to the use of the term ‘mountain product’ and establishing the methods of production, and other criteria relevant for the application of that optional quality term, in particular, laying down the conditions under which raw materials or feedstuffs are permitted to come from outside the mountain areas. It is of particular importance that the Commission carry out appropriate consultations during its preparatory work, including at expert level, and that those consultations be conducted in accordance with the principles laid down in the Interinstitutional Agreement of 13 April 2016 on Better Law-Making 35 . In particular, to ensure equal participation in the preparation of delegated acts, the European Parliament and the Council receive all documents at the same time as Member States’ experts, and their experts systematically have access to meetings of Commission expert groups dealing with the preparation of delegated acts.
(57) In order to ensure uniform conditions for the implementation of this Regulation, implementing powers should be conferred on the Commission as regards defining the technical presentation of, and online access to, the classification of the products designated by geographical indications according to the combined nomenclature; defining a harmonised presentation of sustainability undertakings; defining the format and online presentation of the accompanying documentation and providing for the exclusion or anonymisation of protected personal data; laying down detailed rules on procedures, the form and presentation of Union applications for registration, including for applications concerning more than one national territory; defining the format and online presentation of oppositions and official comments and providing for the exclusion or anonymisation of protected personal data; granting a transitional period to allow the use of a registered name alongside other names that would otherwise contravene with a registered name and extending such transitional period; rejecting the application; deciding on the registration of a geographical indication if an agreement has not been reached; registering of geographical indications pertaining to products of third countries that are protected in the Union under an international agreement, to which the Union is a contracting party; defining the content and presentation of the Union register of geographical indications; defining the format and online presentation of extracts from the Union register of geographical indications, and providing for the exclusion or anonymisation of protected personal data; laying down detailed rules on procedures, form and presentation of applications for a Union amendment and on procedures, the form and communication to the Commission of a standard amendment; cancelling the registration of a geographical indication; laying down detailed rules on procedures and form of the cancellation of a registration and on the presentation of the cancellation requests; establishing the Union symbols for geographical indications, defining the technical characteristics of the Union symbols and indications as well as the rules of their use on products marketed under a registered geographical indication, including rules concerning the appropriate linguistic versions to be used; detailing the nature and the type of the information to be exchanged and the methods for exchanging information under mutual assistance for the purpose of controls and enforcement; laying down rules on the form of the product specification of geographical indications of agricultural products; defining the format and online presentation of the single document of geographical indications of agricultural products and providing for the exclusion or anonymisation of protected personal data; for traditional specialities guaranteed: laying down rules on the form of the product specification; laying down detailed rules on the form and content of the Union register of traditional specialities guaranteed; establishing the Union symbol of traditional specialities guaranteed; laying down rules for the uniform protection of the indications, abbreviations and the Union symbol, rules on their use and on the technical characteristics of the Union symbol; laying down procedural and formal requirements for the protection of traditional specialities guaranteed; laying down detailed rules on procedures, the form and presentation of applications for registration, including for applications concerning more than one national territory, of oppositions and of applications for amendments of a product specification and applications for cancellation of a registration; transitional periods for use of traditional specialities guaranteed; rejecting an application for registration; deciding on the registration of a traditional speciality guaranteed if an agreement has not been reached; cancelling the registration of a traditional speciality guaranteed; for optional quality terms and schemes: laying down technical details necessary for the notification of the optional quality terms and schemes; laying down rules related to forms, procedures or other technical details; laying down rules for the use of optional quality terms. Those powers should be exercised in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council 36 .
(58) The Commission should be empowered to adopt implementing acts without applying Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 in respect of: registering a name if there is no admissible opposition or in case of an admissible opposition, where the agreement has been reached for geographical indications and traditional specialities guaranteed and if necessary amending the information published, provided that these amendments are not substantial; establishing and maintaining a publicly accessible electronic register of geographical indications and electronic register of traditional specialities guaranteed; granting a transitional period for use of geographical indications following an opposition lodged in the national procedure; cancelling the geographical indications registered in breach with a wholly or partly homonymous geographical indication already applied for or registered; defining the means by which the name and address of competent authorities and product certification bodies are to be made public for traditional specialities guaranteed.
(59) Regulations (EU) No 1308/2013, (EU) 2017/1001 and (EU) 2019/787 should therefore be amended accordingly and Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012 should be repealed.
(60) The protected designations of origin, protected geographical indications and traditional specialities guaranteed already registered under Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012, the protected designations of origin and protected geographical indications already registered under Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 and the geographical indications already registered under Regulation (EU) 2019/787 should continue to be protected under this Regulation, and they should be automatically included in the respective register.
(61) Provisions should be made for appropriate arrangements to facilitate a smooth transition from the rules provided for in Regulations (EU) No 1151/2012, (EU) No 1308/2013 and (EU) 2019/787 to the rules laid down in this Regulation.