Ukraine's Rada harmonizes procedure of legal protection of geographical indications for agricultural produce with EU standards

MOSCOW. Sept 6 (Interfax) - Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada has endorsed as a whole bill No. 5616 synchronizing Ukrainian legislation on the legal protection of geographical indications for agricultural produce and foodstuffs with the European Union standards, Ukrainian media reported.

The relevant decision was supported by 288 deputies with the minimum required number of 226 votes at a parliamentary session on Tuesday, Taras Melnychuk, the government's representative in the Verkhovna Rada, said on Telegram.

"The purpose of the bill is to ensure the fulfilment of Ukraine's obligations in the field of European integration in terms of harmonizing the requirements of the current Ukrainian legislation on the protection of rights to geographical indications with the EU law on compliance with the rules of protecting geographical indications for agricultural produce and food products," Melnychuk said.

An explanatory note to the document says that it introduces the notion of traditional guaranteed specifics of agricultural produce, conditions for granting them legal protection, and the notion and procedure of applying special quality indicators to them.

The bill updates the conditions for granting legal protection to a geographical indication for agricultural products and defines a scope of persons entitled to prepare specifications and other documents for such produce.

Bill No. 5616 also introduces a clearance procedure for specifications and other documents essential for the state registration of a geographical indication for agricultural produce featuring traditional guaranteed specifics.