/ world today news/ Momchil Nekov proposed that all European products protected under the geographical indications scheme be protected in international agreements. At the moment, in addition to the rose, Bulgaria has also protected the Gorno-Oryakhov sujuk. At the end of June, the Bulgarian MEP will present native products with the potential for successful protection under the scheme at a conference in Sofia.
Bulgarian MEP Momchil Nekov made a proposal to the opinion of the agricultural committee of the EP that the Union protect all successfully protected European products with geographical indications when conducting trade negotiations with third countries. The geographical indication scheme guarantees the association of the product with a given geographical region. This is done through successful protection under the rules laid down in the European EU quality scheme, which has been operating for several decades in the EU. Countries like France and Italy have over 200 products each, but even one Croatia, which has been a member of the EU since 2013, has already successfully protected 10 products. Bulgaria currently has only two – the Bulgarian rose oil and the Gorno-Oryahov sujuk.
With his amendment, the Bulgarian MEP proposes that during negotiations on international trade agreements, the Commission should protect all successfully protected products under this scheme, which currently number nearly 1,300. Now the approach is different. In negotiating the agreement with the US, for example, the European Commission, together with the Member States, has chosen those geographical indications that have the greatest economic importance for the US market. According to the EC, the two Bulgarian protected geographical indications do not meet this criterion and were therefore not included in the list. “This is a restrictive regime for small and medium-sized businesses of products outside the pre-approved list,” Nekov believes. “It also gives an advantage to those products that are not yet covered by the scheme but have the potential to be or are about to be protected,” he adds. Protecting and including a product in international agreements gives intellectual property rights to the product concerned, but also creates visibility and helps in branding the EU and its member states.
In July 2015, Momchil Nekov announced the start of his campaign “Let’s protect the Bulgarian taste”, the purpose of which is to identify products – potential candidates for registration under the European schemes of geographical indications. “These schemes for the opportunity to create and maintain a livelihood in regions outside the industrial and already economically strong regions,” he believes. The result of the campaign and the Bulgarian products with potential for protection will be announced at the end of June at a conference in Sofia.
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