Proposal for a Council Decision on the conclusion of an agreement between the European Union and Iceland on the protection of geographical indications for agricultural products and foodstuffs

The EU and Iceland are signatories to the Agreement on the European Economic Area (EEA Agreement) which provides for the free movement of goods, with the exception of agricultural and fisheries products. Article 19 of the EEA Agreement contains provisions on trade in agricultural products. The 2007 EU-Iceland bilateral Agreement on trade preferences negotiated on the basis of Article 19 of the EEA Agreement includes among others a commitment by the Parties to promote trade in products with geographical indications (GIs).

The EU-Iceland GIs negotiations were conducted from 4 July 2012 to 17 September 2015. The negotiations were carried out in conjunction with the EU-Iceland negotiations on further liberalisation of trade in agricultural and processed agricultural products. Under the negotiated GIs Agreement, 1,150 EU foodstuff GIs will be protected in Iceland. Iceland has not yet registered any protected GI names. The Agreement provides, however, a mechanism for updating the GIs list and for including new GI names at a later stage through a Joint Committee process.

The GIs Agreement will enter into force on the first day of the month following the date on which the Parties have notified each other that their respective internal adoption procedures have been completed. If this date is before the date of the entry into force of the Agreement in the form of an exchange of letters between the EU and Iceland, the GIs Agreement will only enter into force on the same date as the latter.

• Primary Source

EUR-Lex: COM(2016)523: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2016:523:FIN

EUR-Lex: COM(2016)524: Proposal for a Council Decision on the signing, on behalf of the European Union, of an agreement between the European Union and Iceland on the protection of geographical indications for agricultural products and foodstuffs http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=COM:2016:524:FIN

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