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In recent years, the EU has made great efforts and achieved phenomenal results in protecting and promoting its culinary and cultural traditions, in particular through its Geographical Indication (GI) schemes for quality food and drink products. Many European food and drink GIs - including famous spirits GIs such as Cognac, Irish Whiskey, Brandy de Jerez or Polish and Swedish vodka - are known and appreciated around the world and consumers are eager to discover and enjoy them.
The EU's promotion policy, including the High-Level Missions (HLMs), has provided valuable structural support and acted as a real door opener, especially for SME producers of GI products, helping them to better understand specific foreign markets, establish local business contacts and get a foot in the door to start and develop export prospects, which is often a lengthy, costly and very laborious undertaking. In addition, the HLMs have played an important role in deepening high-level political and regulatory dialogue with specific countries to help improve reciprocal market access conditions for agri-food products. A recent example of successful 'food diplomacy' is Commissioner Wojciechowski's HLM to China in April 2024, which helped to re-launch the EU-China Working Group on Wine and Spirits after eight years, which serves as an important dialogue platform for both sectors.
Well-established relations between the EU and its global partners are fundamental for proportional trade between regions, which will benefit the EU's agri-food sector, which is in serious economic distress due to the many challenges and crises faced by the European population in recent years.
GIs are one of the - admittedly few - tried and tested instruments in the agri-food chain that have been shown time and again to deliver real added value for rural communities and fair prices for upstream producers. In light of recent farmer protests and the central objective of the Strategic Dialogue on Agriculture, as well as the Commission President's commitment to ensuring a fair income for farmers, it would be very worrying and somewhat incomprehensible if the future promotion of GI agri-food products were to be cut along the lines currently envisaged.
Now, perhaps more than ever, in the context of growing geopolitical risks and the possibility of EU agri-food products being caught up in unrelated trade disputes, it is particularly important to maintain strong structural support in the form of an ambitious and adequately funded EU promotion policy.
What's more, European GI spirits are carefully produced, taking into account environmental impacts of all kinds, as well as the vitality of rural communities associated with fine spirits. By exporting products that have been produced with their impact in mind, we can help to raise global awareness of the global climate crisis and appropriate, local mitigation measures.
