The European Union announced on Wednesday that it is signing on to an international agreement covering the protection of food and drink products whose names derive from a particular region with certain characteristics.

The decision to accede to the Geneva Act of the Lisbon Agreement covering so-called geographical indications means that all 28 countries that are members of the E.U. will abide by the act's obligations to protect registered products that come from any of the E.U.'s member nations.

Geographical indications denote that products are from a certain place and have been produced in a traditional way. These include such products as Parma ham, feta and champagne.

The Geneva Act of the Lisbon Agreement, a treaty administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), expands the scope of the Lisbon Agreement to cover not only appellations of origin, but also geographical indications and allows international organisations (such as the E.U.) to become party to the Lisbon Union established under the Lisbon Agreement.

Appellations of origin indicate that a product has been produced using ingredients local to the region and using traditional techniques. Geographical indications denote that products are from a certain place and have been produced in a traditional way but without necessarily using locally sourced ingredients.  

Until now, only seven E.U. countries were contracting parties to the Lisbon agreement: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, France, Hungary, Italy and Portugal. Three E.U. member states (Greece, Romania and Spain) have signed but not ratified the agreement.

The E.U. is the biggest user of geographical indications (GIs) for its farm and food products and insists that its trading partners respect them in negotiations on trade agreements.

The U.S. and other large agricultural producing and exporting countries, such as Australia, Brazil and New Zealand, are not parties to the Lisbon agreement. But the E.U. has put pressure on its trading partners to stop using terms such as champagne, Parma ham and feta for their locally produced foodstuffs.

France has registered 500 products under the Lisbon agreement, while Italy has 100 products registered.