Today, the Council formally adopted a regulation improving the protection of geographical indications (GIs) and other quality schemes for wine, spirit drinks and agricultural products, both online and offline, while also simplifying the registration procedure for GIs.
The regulation will bring tangible benefits to the rural economy and safeguard the EU's gastronomic heritage across the world.

Main improvements Among the improvements to the existing GI system are the following:
- a strengthened role for producer groups by granting them power and responsibilities to manage their GIs, including to represent their members in intellectual property enforcement networks; - the possibility for member states to designate producer groups as 'recognised producer groups' with exclusive rights to be exercised on behalf of all producers of the product designated by a GIa reaffirmed Commission role in the examination of applications for registering products as GIs; - greater protection of geographical indications including online, in domain names that contain geographical indications, via geo-blocking; - to that end, the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) has been entrusted to set up a domain name information and alert system; - greater protection of a GI name designating an ingredient when it is used in the name of a related processed food; in those cases, recognized producer groups will have to be notified and the percentage of the ingredient will need to be indicated.