LegalizeCommission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/27 of 30 October 2024 supplementing Regulation (EU) 2024/1143 of the European Parliament and of the Council with rules concerning the registration and the protection of geographical indications, traditional specialities guaranteed and optional quality terms and repealing Delegated Regulation (EU) No 664/2014
THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,
Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
Having regard to Regulation (EU) 2024/1143 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 April 2024 on geographical indications for wine, spirit drinks and agricultural products, as well as traditional specialities guaranteed and optional quality terms for agricultural products, amending Regulations (EU) No 1308/2013, (EU) 2019/787 and (EU) 2019/1753 and repealing Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012 (1), and in particular Articles 17(10), 24(10), 47(5), 54(2), 61(10), 66(3), 68(5) thereof,
Whereas:
(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 To this purpose, Regulation (EU) 2024/1143 amended or repealed, to the extent necessary, those Union acts that provided for separate frameworks in those sectors.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 Council (2) concerning geographical indications in the wine sector, and Regulation (EU) 2019/787 of the European Parliament and of the Council (3) concerning geographical indications in the spirit drinks sector, and it repealed Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council (4) concerning geographical indications in the agricultural products and foodstuffs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 delegated 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,
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTORY PROVISION
Article 1
Subject matter
This Regulation supplements Regulation (EU) 2024/1143 in respect of the following matters:
CHAPTER II
GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATIONS
Article 2
Procedural rules for opposition
When the Commission receives an opposition pursuant to Article 17(1) of Regulation (EU) 2024/1143, it shall inform the applicant about the opposition without delay.
The period of 3 months during which the opponent and the applicant may engage in appropriate consultations, referred to in Article 17(4) of Regulation (EU) 2024/1143, shall start on the date on which the invitation to them is delivered by electronic means.
For the purposes of Article 17(4) of Regulation (EU) 2024/1143, the name and contact details of the authority or person that submitted the opposition shall be communicated to the authority, body or person that submitted the application for registration or for approval of a Union amendment or the request of cancellation.
In case the Member States consider that the consequent changes to the application for registration referred to in Article 17(6) of Regulation (EU) 2024/1143 are substantial, thus affecting interests that had not been considered in the national opposition procedure carried out in accordance with Article 10(4) of that Regulation, those changes shall be subject to an additional opposition procedure. The applicant Member States shall be allowed to carry out the additional opposition procedure after notifying the result of the consultation to the Commission in accordance with Article 17(6) of Regulation (EU) 2024/1143. In that additional opposition procedure, the Member State shall ensure that any natural or legal person having a legitimate interest and established or resident in the territory of the Member State in question is allowed to submit an opposition before the amended version of the single document and of the product specification is communicated to the Commission, in view of repeating the examination as referred to in Article 17(7) of Regulation (EU) 2024/1143.
Article 3
Union amendment of geographical indications for which a single document has never been published
An application for approval of a Union amendment to the product specification of a geographical indication, for which a single document or equivalent has never been published in the Official Journal of the European Union, shall include a single document. The single document shall comply with Article 50(1) of Regulation (EU) 2024/1143, Article 95 of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 or Article 23 of Regulation (EU) 2019/787, depending on whether the geographical indication designates an agricultural product, a wine or a spirit drink, respectively.
Article 4
Member State approval of standard amendments to the product specification of a geographical indication
For the purposes of Article 24 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1143, applications for approval of standard amendment to a product specification shall be submitted to the authorities of the Member State in whose territory the defined geographical area of the product concerned is located.
Member States may provide that applications for standard amendments are published for opposition at national level. If national opposition is not provided for, and if the application for approval of a standard amendment to a product specification does not come from the applicant producer group that had submitted the application for protection of the name or names to which the product specification refers, the Member State shall give that applicant producer group the opportunity to comment on the application, if that applicant producer group still exists.
The application for approval of a standard amendment shall provide a description of the standard amendments and a summary of the reasons for which the amendments are required, and shall demonstrate that the proposed amendments qualify as standard in accordance with Article 24(4) of Regulation (EU) 2024/1143.
Where the Member State considers that the requirements of Regulation (EU) 2024/1143 and of the provisions adopted pursuant to that Regulation are met, it may approve the standard amendment. The approval decision shall include the electronic reference to the published amended consolidated product specification and, where relevant, the amended consolidated single document. When the standard amendment concerns a geographical indication for which a single document has never been published in the Official Journal of the European Union, a single document shall always be included.
The approval decision including the related single document, where relevant, shall be made public by the Member States. The approved standard amendment shall be applicable in the Member State concerned following the applicable national rules for entry into force.
In case of standard amendment to the product specification concerning a geographical indication for which a single document has never been published in the Official Journal of the European Union, the single document shall be published for information at Union level.
Article 5
Communication of standard amendments
The Member State shall communicate approved standard amendments to the Commission no later than 1 month following the date on which the national approval decision was made public.
A decision approving standard amendments concerning products originating in third countries shall be communicated to the Commission by a producer group, either directly or via the authorities of the third country concerned, no later than 1 month following the date on which the relevant decision was approved.
The communication of an approved standard amendment to the Commission shall be considered duly made if it contains all the elements listed in Article 12 of Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/26 (6).
In the event that an approval of a standard amendment results in an amendment of the single document, the Commission shall publish the communication of the standard amendment and the amended single document in the Official Journal of the European Union, C series, within 3 months from the date on which it has received the communication of that standard amendment.
In the event that an approval of a standard amendment, duly communicated, does not result in an amendment of the single document, the Commission shall make public in the Union register of geographical indications referred to in Article 22 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1143, the communication of the standard amendment within 3 months from the date on which it has received the communication of that standard amendment.
The Commission shall not publish a communication of approval of a standard amendment which has not been duly made in accordance with paragraph 3. The Commission shall inform the authority or producer group that the communication of the standard amendment is not duly made within 3 months. In case of absence of reply after 2 months from receiving the letter of the Commission, the unduly made communication shall be deemed as not submitted.
The Member State shall communicate, without delay, to the Commission:
(a) any immediately applicable judicial or administrative decision annulling a decision approving a standard amendment;
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