Ukraine has achieved a ten-year transition period and compensation from the European Union in return for giving up the use of geographic names for products, the Ukrainian government's commissioner for European integration, Valeriy Piatnytsky, said in an interview with the "Mirror Weekly. Ukraine," which was published on Saturday.
He said that one of the issues that was debated in the talks with the European Union on the creation of a free trade zone was the issue of the use of geographic names.
"And we have to give proper respect to the Europeans: they launched a project, hired experts [mainly in the winemaking area, but the experience should be extended later to other areas]. A unique catalogue is being prepared – where credit resources should be allocated, and the same for technical ones," the official said.
He said that these would be European resources: "Potentially, this is the loans of the European Investment Bank, the EBRD [European Bank For Reconstruction and Development] for companies that want to modernize. A loan agreement will be drafted regarding the modernization of production, the transition to new trade names, etc. If, conditionally, you produce champagne today, and tomorrow you have to switch to sparkling wine, then you only need to formally publish the new labels."
Piatnytsky added that "it would be good, of course, to conduct a study to see how the name change will affect consumer demand."
He said that this could require some resources and in other cases, funds may be needed to improve the quality of the product.
"Each company has to decide to what it is going to direct its efforts, and under what conditions it wants to get the resources. We already have a package arrangement," he said.
