Special regional handicraft products such as Solingen knives are to be given an EU quality seal in the future. This would put traditional handicraft and industrial products such as jewelry, textiles, glass or porcelain on an equal footing with the protected geographical indications for food, as the EU states announced on Wednesday night after an agreement was reached between negotiators in the European Parliament and the EU countries. Parliament and EU states still have to formally approve the agreement.
“Customers who buy Solingen cutlery or Meissner porcelain, for example, then have the certainty that the products they have purchased are not fakes or imitations,” said CDU politician Marion Walsmann. Only two products are currently protected at national level: Solingen cutlery and Glashütte watches. “But we have many more regional products in Germany that are worth protecting throughout Europe,” said the parliamentary negotiator. So far, there have only been labels of origin for regional specialties such as Parmesan, champagne, Hessian apple wine, Black Forest ham or Spreewald gherkins.
In Solingen, however, the planned EU quality seal is viewed with some concern. Andreas Leweringhaus from the Bergische Chamber of Industry and Commerce told the German Press Agency that the name Solingen has been legally protected for cutlery for many decades thanks to the “Solingen Ordinance”. Thanks to the EU trademark regulation, the protection also applies internationally and works well.
Leweringhaus fears that the new EU regulation could make the situation more difficult for the cutlery manufacturers in Solingen. For example, the current regulations, according to which cutlery can only bear the Solingen designation of origin if it was produced there in all essential manufacturing steps, could be relaxed. The IHK representative therefore appealed to the EU to give old trademark rights grandfathering in the new regulation.
The agreement goes back to a proposal by the EU Commission. She also hopes that the project will bring more tourists to the production sites, create jobs and increase the general competitiveness of the regions.
