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Agriculture and rural development

Geographical indications and quality schemes explained

Aims of EU quality schemes

EU quality policy aims to protect the names of specific products to promote their unique characteristics, linked to their geographical origin as well as traditional know-how.

Product names can be granted a 'geographical indication' (GI) if they have a specific link to the place where they are made. The GI recognition enables consumers to trust and distinguish quality products while also helping producers to market their products better.

Products that are under consideration or have been granted GI recognition are listed in geographical indications registers. The registers also include information on the geographical and production specifications for each product.

Recognised as intellectual property, geographical indications play an increasingly important role intrade negotiations between the EU and other countries.

Other EU quality schemes emphasise the traditional production process or products made in difficult natural areas such as mountains or islands.

Geographical indications

Geographical indications establish intellectual property rights for specific products, whose qualities are specifically linked to the area of production.

Geographical indications comprise:

The EU geographical indications system protects the names of products that originate from specific regions and have specific qualities or enjoy a reputation linked to the production territory. The differences between PDO and PGI are linked primarily to how much of the product’s raw materials must come from the area, or how much of the production process has to take place within the specific region. GI is specific for spirit drinks.

Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) logo
Protected designation of origin (PDO)

Product names registered as PDO are those that have the strongest links to the place in which they are made.

  • Products: food, agricultural products and wines.
  • Specifications: Every part of the production, processing and preparation process must take place in the specific region. For wines, this means that the grapes have to come exclusively from the geographical area where the wine is made.
  • Example: Kalamata olive oil PDO is entirely produced in the region of Kalamata in Greece, using olive varieties from that area.
  • Label: mandatory for food and agricultural products, optional for wine.
Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) logo
Protected geographical indication (PGI)

PGI emphasises the relationship between the specific geographic region and the name of the product, where a particular quality, reputation or other characteristic is essentially attributable to its geographical origin.

  • Products: food, agricultural products and wines.
  • Specifications: For most products, at least one of the stages of production, processing or preparation takes place in the region. In the case of wine, this means that at least 85% of the grapes used have to come exclusively from the geographical area where the wine is actually made.
  • Example: Westfälischer Knochenschinken PGI ham is produced in Westphalia using age-old techniques, but the meat used does not exclusively come from animals born and reared in that specific region of Germany.
  • Label: mandatory for food, agricultural products, optional for wines.
Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) logo
Geographical indication of spirit drinks (GI)

The GI protects the name of a spirit drink originating in a country, region or locality where the product’s particular quality, reputation or other characteristic is essentially attributable to its geographical origin.

  • Products: spirit drinks.
  • Specifications: For most products, at least one of the stages of distillation or preparation takes place in the region. However, raw products do not need to come from the region.
  • Example: Irish Whiskey GI has been brewed, distilled and matured in Ireland since the 6th century, but the raw materials do not exclusively come from Ireland.
  • Label: optional for all products.

Traditional speciality guaranteed

Traditional Speciality Guaranteed (TSG) logo

Traditional speciality guaranteed (TSG) highlights the traditional aspects, such as the way the product is made or its composition, without being linked to a specific geographical area. The name of a product being registered as a TSG protects it against falsification and misuse.

  • Products: food and agricultural products.
  • Example: Gueuze TSG is a traditional beer obtained by spontaneous fermentation. It is generally produced in and around Brussels, Belgium. Nonetheless, being a TSG, its production method is protected but it could be produced somewhere else.
  • Label: mandatory for all products.

Other schemes

Mountain product

The quality term ‘mountain product’ highlights the specificities of a product, made in mountain areas, with difficult natural conditions.

Recognising this is an advantage for farmers as well as consumers. It enables farmers to market the product better but also ensures certain characteristics are clear to the consumer.

Image: panoramic view of rural alpine landscape with cows grazing in fresh green meadows
  • Products: agricultural and food products.
  • Specifications: Raw materials and animal feed comes from mountain areas. For processed products, production should take place in such areas as well.

Report: Labelling of agricultural and food products of mountain farming

Product of EU's outermost regions

Agriculture in the EU’s outermost regions face difficulties due to remoteness and insularity, which brings with it difficult geographical and meteorological conditions. To ensure greater awareness of agricultural products from the EU’s outermost regions (the French Overseas Departments – Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Réunion and Martinique – and the Azores, Madeira and the Canary Islands) a dedicated logo has been created.

Outermost regions logo
  • Products: agricultural and food products.
  • Specifications: produced in outermost regions
  • Label: logo example for agricultural and food products from the EU’s outermost regions.

Voluntary certification schemes

Voluntary certification schemes at national level or those run by private operators can also help consumers to be confident about the quality of the products they choose.

In addition to the EU schemes, a large number of private and national food quality schemes or logos exist, covering a wide range of initiatives and operating between businesses or between businesses and consumers.

In consultation with stakeholders, the European Commission developed guidelines showing best practice for the operation of such schemes.

Commission Communication: EU best practice guidelines for voluntary certification schemes for agricultural products and foodstuffs

Regulations on quality schemes

The Commission has adopted a number of regulations on the application of quality schemes:

Regulations on food and agricultural products

Regulations on wine

Regulations on spirit drinks

Regulations on mountain products

Regulations on products of outermost regions

Proposal to strengthen GI system

On 31 March 2022, the Commission adopted a proposal for a regulation on GIs for wine, spirit drinks and agricultural products, and other quality schemes for agricultural products. The proposal aims to increase the uptake of GIs across the EU in order to benefit the rural economy and achieve a higher level of protection for products, especially online. 

The Commission has proposed the following measures, among others, to strengthen and improve the existing system:

  • more sustainability by allowing producers to valorise their actions relating to social, environmental and economic sustainability in their product specifications;
  • increased protection for GIs on the internet, specifically with regard to sales via online platforms, protection against bad faith registrations and use of GIs in the domain name system;
  • empowering producers' groups to manage, enforce and develop their GI by having access to anti-counterfeiting authorities and customs in all EU countries;
  • a shortened and simplified registration procedure will merge the different technical and procedural rules, resulting in a single GI registration procedure for EU and non-EU applicants.

The Commission's proposal is the result of an extensive consultation process. An inception impact assessment was published in October 2020. This was followed by a public consultation between January and April 2021, as well as targeted consultations with EU countries and relevant stakeholder organisations.

How products are protected

As part of the EU’s system of IPRs, names of products registered as GIs are legally protected against imitation and misuse within the EU and in non-EU countries where a specific protection agreement has been signed.

For all quality schemes, each EU country’s competent national authorities take the necessary measures to protect the registered names within their territory. They should also prevent and stop the unlawful production or marketing of products using such a name.

Non-European product names can also register as GIs if their country of origin has a bilateral or regional agreement with the EU that includes the mutual protection of such names.

The names of various products (wine, food and spirit drinks) produced in several countries outside the EU, such as Colombia or South Africa, have been protected.

GIs applied for and entered in the Union registers may be consulted on eAmbrosia (the official database of EU GI registers), while both EU and non-EU GIs protected under agreements can be consulted on the GIview portal.

Download logos

26 APRIL 2018
Protected designation of origin
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(3.66 MB - ZIP)
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26 APRIL 2018
Protected geographical indication
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(3.77 MB - ZIP)
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26 APRIL 2018
Traditional speciality guaranteed
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(3.69 MB - ZIP)
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Documents

13 APRIL 2022
Administrative agreement between the Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development and the European Union Intellectual Property Office
English
(1.1 MB - PDF)
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30 MARCH 2022
Proposal for a regulation on EU geographical indications for wine, spirit drinks and agricultural products, and quality schemes for agricultural products
English
(HTML)
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31 MARCH 2022
Annex to the proposal for a regulation on EU geographical indications for wine, spirit drinks and agricultural products, and quality schemes for agricultural products
English
(142.02 KB - PDF)
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5 MAY 2022
Commission staff working document – executive summary of impact assessment report on proposal for a Regulation on geographical indications for wine, spirit drinks and agricultural products, and quality schemes
English
(HTML)
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18 MAY 2022
Commission staff working document – impact assessment report on proposal for a Regulation on geographical indications for wine, spirit drinks and agricultural products, and quality schemes
English
(HTML)
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2 MAY 2022
Commission staff working document – annex to the impact assessment report on proposal for a Regulation on geographical indications for wine, spirit drinks and agricultural products, and quality schemes
English
(HTML)
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18 MAY 2022
Regulatory Scrutiny Board opinion – impact assessment report on proposal for a Regulation on geographical indications for wine, spirit drinks and agricultural products, and quality schemes
English
(253.41 KB - PDF)
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