DESIGNATIONS OF ORIGIN WITHIN THE EU: LEGAL CHALLENGES 39 2. TOWARDS A GREATER CONCEPTUAL CERTAINTY CONCERNING DESIGNATIONS OF ORIGIN It is common knowledge that European law lays down two tiers of protection, that is, two geographical designations: (protected) designations of origin and (protected) geographical indications, albeit with some dissimilarities, far from self-evident. This distinction has been criticised by some for blurring the contours of the designation of origin, against which the geographical indication would just be a watered-down version. Designations of origin are defined in article 5(1) of the current Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012 as: “a name which identifies a product: (a) originating in a specific place, region or, in exceptional cases, a country; (b) whose quality or characteristics are essentially or exclusively due to a particular geographical environment with its inherent natural and human factors; and (c) the production steps of which all take place in the defined geographical area”. This definition – which tweaked, to some extent, the original wording of the 1992 Regulation (the details of which we cannot now look into13) – shows a strict French-style formulation of the legal concept, not far removed from the one provided by the Lisbon Agreement. As this paper will solely focus on the legal challenges of the framework, two elements must be mentioned: the conceptual peculiarity of the wine designations (2.1) and the conceptual boundaries between those and the geographical indication category, whether related to wine or otherwise (2.2). 2.1. Wine European Geographical Designations’ Peculiarity In 1962, European law had instituted the concept of “quality wines produced in specified regions” (quality wines psr or QWpsr). Later, in 2008, Council Regulation (EC) No 479/2008 of 29 April regulated the new common organisation of the wine market, taking a significant step forward in the area being studied. As they veered away from the wine quality policies based on the concept behind quality wines psr and substituted their own concepts of the horizontal policy, European Union officials identified the failings of the previous approach. This significant step in the Europe-wide regulation of wine was driven by two factors14. The Commission had emphasised, two years before, the need 13 For further elaboration on the issue, see PRIETO ÁLVAREZ, T. (2019). op. cit. 14 For further explanations, see MENJUCQ, M., (2010). “La nouvelle régulation communautaire du marché vitivinicole”, in MENJUCQ, M. et al., Histoire et actualités du droit viticole. La Robe et le Vin, Féret, Burdeos, p. 41.
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