New rules for who certifies spirit drinks with a protected name, and a stopgap while no body is recognised

A bottle of țuică, the Romanian plum spirit, sold under a protected name cannot reach the market unless someone has checked that it complies with the product specification. The order published on Friday rewrites who that someone is. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has approved, through Order no. 213/2026, a new regulation on the recognition of the delegated bodies that certify spirit drinks designated by geographical indications. It is the second day running in which the ministry has intervened in the field of geographical indications, after the orders on producer groups and international protection, published a day earlier in Official Gazette of Romania no. 671.

There is a coincidence of numbering that can mislead: the new act bears the number 213, the same as the 2022 order it repeals. MADR Order no. 213/2022, published in Official Gazette of Romania no. 802 of 12 August 2022, ceases to be in force on the very day the new one takes effect.

The order names no drink in particular. It applies to any spirit drink designated by a registered geographical indication or by one that is to obtain protection, and the names that are actually protected are held in the European register, not in this act.

The reason for the rewrite is European. Regulation (EU) 2024/1.143 has reset the system of geographical indications for wine, spirit drinks and agricultural products, and the terminology has changed with it: the title of the repealed order spoke of „bodies certifying spirit drinks”, whereas the new act speaks of „delegated bodies”, to which the ministry delegates verification and certification tasks.

The basic principle is stated in the body of the order: before being placed on the market, a spirit drink designated by a geographical indication is subject to a system of official control. The regulation in the annex says who carries out that control, what conditions it has to meet, how it becomes recognised, what obligations it has once recognised and what happens for as long as there is none. It has 15 articles, three chapters and ten annexes of standard forms.

What it changes in practice

A body that certifies has to meet six cumulative conditions. Article 6 lists them under letters a) to f): it must be a legal person with its seat in Romania or, if its principal seat is in another member state, it must establish and maintain a secondary seat in Romania; it must have the structure, the equipment and the procedures; it must have its own accredited laboratory or a collaboration contract with such a laboratory; it must have qualified and experienced staff; it must be impartial and independent in relation to all the parties involved; and it must fully satisfy the requirements of the European standard EN ISO/IEC 17065, accredited by the national accreditation body of Romania, RENAR, or by an equivalent accreditation body. The act says „cumulatively” in as many words, so all six.

The recognition file has eight categories of document. Article 7 calls for the standard application form, a copy of the registration certificate, a copy of the accreditation certificate, the articles of incorporation or the statute, a written declaration on making accreditation information available, the standard control procedure, the file on employed or contracted staff, with diplomas, CVs, contracts and training certificates, and, under the last letter, a written undertaking that the body will not allow economic operators to use genetically modified organisms or their derivatives.

The certificate of recognition runs for 4 years, but it is endorsed annually. The endorsement is granted after the control and supervision of the body’s activity, carried out by the ministry’s inspection and control unit. Without the endorsement for the current year, the certificate no longer covers the activity: article 3 of the order says that the bodies may work „until the date on which the annual endorsement expires”, and the model certificate in annex no. 5 carries a note that it is valid only if endorsed for the current year.

The deadline for endorsement is fixed: before 31 March. Every year, before that date, the delegated body has to file the application, accompanied by three documents: the accreditation certificate, the list of names and positions of the staff responsible for verifications and controls, and the procedures on verifications and controls. Failure to file in time appears, under letter f) of article 10, among the grounds on which an application for annual „avizare” may be refused, an approval, as the act calls it there, even though article 9 calls the same procedure „vizare”, an endorsement.

The period for communicating orders is the same length throughout: 10 calendar days. The deadline is written three times in the articles of the regulation, for recognition, for annual endorsement and for the extension of the scope of certification, with one difference of drafting: for recognition and for extension it runs from the date the order is signed, and for annual endorsement from the date it is issued. The difference does not hold even within the same procedure, though: the model annual endorsement order in annex no. 7 says „from the date it is signed”, and so contradicts the very article it implements. The withdrawal order refers back to the same conditions.

Six grounds can lead to the withdrawal of recognition or to the refusal of the endorsement. Activity that is not in line with the standard verification and control procedures; failure to correct the non-conformities found at a control; preventing the ministry’s representatives from carrying out their control activity; ceasing or suspending activity, or being subject to enforcement proceedings; the expiry or the withdrawal of accreditation, established following a communication from RENAR or from an equivalent body; and failure to file the application for endorsement before 31 March. The text says that the certificate „may be withdrawn” and that the endorsement „may be refused”, so the penalty is not automatic.

Withdrawal can be total or partial. The withdrawal order is communicated under the same conditions as the annual endorsement order, and its model, in annex no. 8, has boxes for the grounds of fact and for the rules of law infringed. The act does not explain what partial means, but the certificate is granted for the spirit drinks listed in the application, and the model order is tied to the categories covered by the certificate.

Withdrawal does not hit the body alone, but also the applicants registered with it. The ministry informs RENAR or the equivalent accreditation body, as well as the applicants registered with the penalised body, that its certification mark and any declaration of conformity may no longer be used and that a contract has to be concluded with another delegated body. The same information is given when an application for annual endorsement is refused, not only when the certificate is withdrawn.

A challenge has 30 days for filing and 30 for resolution. The two periods do not run from the same point: the filing period runs from the communication of the order, while the period for resolution, expressed in calendar days, runs from the date on which the challenge is received by the resolution commission appointed by the ministry’s management. The commission then communicates its decision to allow or to dismiss the challenge.

A fresh application can be filed only after the failings have been put right. A body whose certificate has been withdrawn may file a fresh application for recognition only after it has corrected the non-conformities identified. The regulation attaches the condition to the filing of the application, not to the resumption of the activity. What the procedure involves after filing does not follow from this text.

Extension to new categories most likely does not restart the 4 years. A body that is already recognised files an application with three documents: the standard application form, the accreditation certificate for the new categories and the verification and control procedures that go with them. The ministry draws up the report with the reasoned proposal within 30 days of filing, and the order is issued afterwards, on the basis of the report. The new certificate keeps the number of the original one and the 4-year validity, with a note of the date on which the scope of certification was re-accredited and of the date of extension. The act expressly ties only the number to the original certificate, not the term, although annex no. 5, with its four endorsement boxes running from year I to year IV, points the same way.

Article 13 paragraph (1) lists sixteen obligations for recognised bodies. They run from letter a) to letter p), and three of them carry deadlines of their own. The first announced audit has to be carried out within a maximum of 120 calendar days of the signature of the certification contract with the applicant, and at least one planned audit has to be carried out every year, to which unannounced controls may be added. Changes in accreditation status are to be notified to the ministry within 5 days of receipt of the official communication, and the list of operators verified in the previous year is to be sent by 31 January.

An applicant works with a single delegated body. The regulation does allow a change: if for sound reasons the contract cannot be honoured, the applicant may conclude another one with a different delegated body, provided that the first is terminated. The body that loses the client is required to pass on to its successor, without delay, all the information needed for the verification to continue.

The document the applicant receives at the end is called „Official attestation”. It is issued by the delegated body to an applicant that complies with the product specification, under article 45 paragraph (1) of Regulation (EU) 2024/1.143, following the model in Annex IX to Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/26. „Applicant” is the term the regulation uses throughout, and article 13 paragraph (1) letter m) explains it: the type of operator may be a producer or a processor.

The ministry supervises through two different units. The unit that implements Regulation (EU) 2019/787 checks that the conditions and the documentation are met and withdraws recognition, while the inspection and control unit monitors the activity, carries out at least one audit every year by directly observing the delegated body’s inspectors, and draws up, by 31 March, the evaluation report for the previous year. The list of delegated bodies holding a certificate of recognition, with their full name and seat, is published annually on the ministry’s website.

There is a fallback for as long as no delegated body is recognised. The condition in the text is the general absence of delegated bodies recognised by the ministry, not the absence of one competent for a particular drink. In that situation, conformity is attested by a commission approved by the ministry’s management, made up of an odd number of members designated by the minister and sized according to the geographical area set out in the product specification. After assessing the documentation, the commission issues a record of conformity.

The record expires 6 months after a delegated body is recognised. Its validity ceases within that period, and during that interval the applicant is required to conclude a conformity verification contract with the recognised delegated body. The commission itself operates, the act says, „for a limited period”, until the date on which a delegated body is recognised.

The list extract is requested from the ministry, but issued by the commission. Operators may ask the ministry, by way of an application, to issue a list extract, but the following paragraph says that it is the commission that issues it. For one and the same document the act gives two models: paragraph (6) refers to annex no. 2 to the regulation, and paragraph (7) to Annex IX to Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/26. The model in annex no. 2 requires the record of conformity to be attached. The mechanism is therefore part of the same provisional regime as the commission; it is not a permanent facility. According to the model, the document serves to be made available to the customs authorities or to other authorities in the Union.

What has changed compared with the previous situation

The only change the act documents itself is one of vocabulary, but it has legal effect. Article 4 of the order quotes in full the title of the repealed act, and that title reads „bodies certifying spirit drinks”. The new regulation speaks throughout of „delegated bodies”, and the certificate of recognition is expressly defined as the act by which the ministry delegates tasks to them. This is the language of Regulation (EU) 2024/1.143.

The rest of the comparison cannot be made from the act: the order repeals the 2022 regulation without reproducing its text, so nothing can be said on the basis of the order about what the earlier version provided. What follows describes the architecture as it stands now, not the difference from the old one.

The legal basis invoked in the preamble is made up of four elements: article 3 paragraphs (4) and (5) of Government Decision no. 537/2022, Regulation (EU) 2024/1.143, article 57 paragraph (1) of the Administrative Code and article 9 paragraph (5) of Government Decision no. 30/2017. Regulation (EU) 2019/787 does not figure as a legal basis in its own right, only inside the titles of the other acts cited, and Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/26 does not appear in the legal basis at all: it is invoked separately, in the body of the regulation, for the model of the list extract and for that of the official attestation.

The system is visible on two levels. The ministry sends the European Commission the list of delegated bodies and their competences, while on its own website it publishes annually the list of bodies for which certificates have been issued, with their full name and seat. The act describes two lists with different content, not a single one.

It is worth adding that the act cites itself inconsistently, in four places. Article 9 speaks of the annual „vizare” of the certificate, the endorsement, while article 10 speaks of an application for annual „avizare”, an approval, even though an approval and an endorsement are distinct instruments. And Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2025/26 is invoked twice, at article 4 paragraph (7) and at article 13 paragraph (1) letter p) of the regulation, under the same number and the same date, but under two titles that describe different types of act: the first is the title of a delegated regulation, one that supplements Regulation (EU) 2024/1.143 and repeals Delegated Regulation (EU) no. 664/2014, the second that of an implementing regulation, one that lays down rules of application and amends Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/34. These are two different acts, so one of the two references carries a wrong number. Although it changes the terminology throughout, article 10 paragraph (3), the one on challenges, keeps the old formula and speaks of „an inspection and certification body”. And article 8 paragraph (4), which defines the certificate of recognition, describes the delegation as covering the product specification „of agricultural products designated by geographical indications or traditional specialities guaranteed”, wording taken over from the regime for agricultural products rather than from the one for spirit drinks that the order regulates.

Advantages and disadvantages

Practical advice

Frequently asked questions