Public consultation now open: EU geographical indications scheme

January 25, 2021 EU Intellectual Property Network

The European Commission has launched a public consultation inviting citizens and organisations as well as national and regional public authorities to contribute to the assessment of how to strengthen the geographical indications system.

The European Union protects almost 3 400 names of specific products – agricultural products and foodstuffs, fishery and aquaculture products wines, spirit drinks and aromatised wine products – under one of its EU quality schemes: Geographical Indication (GI), Protected Designations of Origin (PDO), Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) and Traditional Speciality Guaranteed (TSG).

The goal of the consultation is to gather views on the major challenges identified that would need to be addressed in the planned revision as well as their underlying causes, the set of policy options that can be envisaged to address these challenges and the impacts stemming from these different options.

The questionnaire is available in all EU languages and it can be accessed via the European Commission web page dedicated to the consultation. The deadline for contributions is 9 April 2021.