29.6.2001 Official Journal of the European Communities L176/27 COMMISSION REGULATION (EC) No 1285/2001 of 28 June 2001 rejecting a list of applications for the registration of designations communicated under Article 17 of Council Regulation (EEC) No 2081/92 on the protection of geographical indications and designa- tions of origin for agricultural products and foodstuffs THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, Having regard to Council Regulation (EEC) No 2081/92 of 14 July 1992 on the protection of geographical indications and designations of origin for agricultural products and food- stuffs (), as last amended by Commission Regulation (EC) No 2796/2000 (3, and in particular Article 17 thereof, Whereas: (1) A decision on 314 German applications, communicated under Article 17(2) of Regulation (EEC) No 2081/92 for the registration of ‘mineral waters’ as protected designa- tions of origin, is pending. (2)  In the case of at least 125 of these 314 applications, the proposed names are not geographical and they are consequently not ‘designations of origin’, as specified in Article 2(a) of that Regulation. (3)  Article 2(3) of Regulation (EEC) No 2081/92 allows under certain circumstances to consider traditional geographical or non-geographical names as designations of origin. This Article, which is an exception to the general rule, may not be applied to any of these 125 applications, as they do not clearly justify that the proposed designations have been traditionally attributed to a particular geographical area. Accordingly these 125 applications may not be registered. (40  In the case of 15 of the 314 German applications communicated under Article 17(2) of Regulation (EEC) No 2081/92 for registrations of ‘mineral waters’, the proposed names are geographical but include ‘numbers’, the latter helping to distinguish between ‘mineral waters’ having the same designations. Designations of origin including ‘numbers’ shall not be accepted, being the objective of the Regulation the protection of only geographical names. Accordingly these 15 applications may not be registered. (5)  The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Regulatory Committee on Geographical Indications and Designa- tions of Origin, HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: Article 1 The applications for registrations under Article 17 of Regula- tion (EEC) No 2081/92 of the designations listed in the Annex to this Regulation are rejected. Article 2 This Regulation shall enter into force on the day following its publication in the Official Journal of the European Communities. This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States. Done at Brussels, 28 June 2001. () O] L 208, 24.7.1992, p. 1. () O] L 324, 21.12.2000, p. 25. For the Commission Franz FISCHLER Member of the Commission