The European Parliament,

–  having regard to Rule 113 of its Rules of Procedure,

A.  whereas the European stringed instruments industry is under threat from Chinese producers who assemble instruments and then send them to Italy and other European countries for varnishing and thickness adjustment to modulate their sound,

B.  whereas the preferential origin rule relating to musical instruments is laid down in Article 24 of the Community customs code and the WTO rules in force provide that in order to obtain the status of originating from a given country, the working must represent 45% of the price of the finished product;

C.  whereas Regulation (EC) No 881/2003 lays down that working must be 40%;

D.  whereas that regulation does not protect European producers of musical instruments and many production centres, such as the Italian schools of stringed instrument making, and in particular the one in Cremona which continues to attract international attention, are at risk of vanishing, wiping out centuries of tradition and history,

1.  Calls on the Commission to support, in the negotiations on harmonising the preferential rules of origin in progress in Geneva, adjustment of the criteria for the recognition of origin on the basis of the type of operation performed in the manufacture of musical instruments in individual countries;

2.  Calls for the introduction of criteria relating to the place in which the instrument is finished and to the production know-how used, when granting recognition of the place of origin of the product.