The late protection of " Feta " in its country of origin coupled with the lack of historic care taken by interested parties to protect such designation in third countries , enabled natural or legal persons in Canada and South Africa to produce and / or market for decades a nonoriginating cheese under such designation " Feta " that incidentally does not refer to a geographical place , and which gradually acquired in these two countries a quasi-generic character .
Pursuant to international rules , in particular Article 24.4 of the TRIPS agreement , the grandfathering of such prior uses may not be discarded .
Yet , the agreements concluded with Canada and SADC EPA States paved the way for a significantly fairer competition . The alternative would have been to maintain the status quo , meaning no specific protection at all for " Feta ".
In the agreements with Canada and South Africa , Feta is accordingly protected and recognised as a Greek GI , thus definitively preventing it from becoming generic ; the agreement imposes further labelling restrictions and requirements on the non-originating product ( i . e . an obligation to refer to the actual country of origin and to the milk composition , a prohibition to use Greek flags , images and any other devices invoking the Greek terroir ; the addition of the term " style " or " type "…), which allow henceforth the consumer to easily distinguish the genuine product , contrary to the situation prevailing prior to this agreement .
The difference of treatment you invoke as compared to the full protection of other EU PDOs is due to the fact that in Canada and South Africa , there was no identified prior use nor any related genericness claims made in respect of them . As regards Canada , there were four other EU GI , also cheeses , in the very same situation than Feta and which , accordingly , will enjoy the same level of protection in Canada that Feta will .
Commitment to enhance protection of Feta : you consider that the Commission has not formally committed to seek a future improvement of the protected status of " Feta " in South Africa and in Canada .
The Commission has repeatedly committed to use the appropriate mechanisms contemplated in these agreements with a view to further increase the level of protection granted to the name " Feta "; such commitment has been made inter alia in official declarations of the Commission , as well as in replies of Commissioner Hogan , on behalf of the Commission , to parliamentary written questions P-004696 / 2016 and P-004719 / 20162 .
In this respect , a key element that would facilitate such enhanced protection is the education of non-EU consumers about the origin and quality of the PDO " Feta ", allowing the consumers of our negotiating partners to fully grasp the unique specificities of the authentic product ; thus , the Commission indicated in its aforementioned declarations that it will offer its continuous support to Member States , producers and exporters of geographical indications in order to promote their geographical indications ; in this connection , an extensive dedicated workshop has already been held on 11 July 2016 in Athens .
I hope the explanations above have proven helpful . Yours sincerely ,
John A . CLARKE
2 Electronically signed on 22 / 05 / 2017 08:51 ( UTC + 02 ) in accordance with article 4.2 ( Validity of electronic documents ) of Commission Decision 2004 / 563