Source: EURLEX
Language: en
Format: md

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| EVALUATION ROADMAP | |
| Roadmaps aim to inform citizens and stakeholders about the Commission's work to allow them to provide feedback and to participate effectively in future consultation activities. Citizens and stakeholders are in particular invited to provide views on the Commission's understanding of the problem and possible solutions and to share any relevant information that they may have. | |
| Title of the evaluation | Evaluation of Geographical Indications and Traditional Specialities Guaranteed protected in the European Union |
| Lead DG – responsible unit | DG AGRI C.4 Monitoring and evaluation |
| Indicative Planning  (planned start date and completion date) | Planned start date Q2 2019  Completion date Q4 2020 |
| Additional Information | https://ec.europa.eu/info/food-farming-fisheries\_en  https://ec.europa.eu/info/food-farming-fisheries/food-safety-and-quality/certification/quality-labels |
| The Roadmap is provided for information purposes only. It does not prejudge the final decision of the Commission on whether this initiative will be pursued or on its final content. All elements of the initiative described by the document, including its timing, are subject to change. | |

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| A. Context, purpose and scope of the evaluation |
| Context |
| Under its quality policy in the area of agricultural production, the European Union (EU) protects the names of geographical indications (GIsXXX) and Traditional Specialities Guaranteed (TSGs) for agricultural products, foodstuffs, spirit drinks, wines and aromatised wines. By protecting the registered names (GIs and TSGs), the EU (1) promotes the specific characteristics of the products, linked to their geographical origin and traditional know-how; and (2) helps producers in informing consumers about the quality products.  The corresponding quality scheme rules are set out in four Regulations of the Council and the European Parliament. In total, the EU registered over 3200 GIs and 61 TSGs. All protected names are included in the EU databases and registers. The registration also covers around 30 GIs from third countries.  EU rules distinguish between the following types of geographical indications, depending on the degree and type of association with a defined geographical area:  (1)names registered as a protected designation of origin (PDO) for agricultural products, foodstuffs, and wines (the raw ingredients need to come from the region of origin where all steps of production need to take place);  (2) names registered as a protected geographical indication (PGI) for agricultural products, foodstuffs, and wines (for most products, at least one of the stages of production, processing or preparation takes place in the region);  (3)names registered as a geographical indication (GI) for spirit drinks and aromatised wines (at least one of the stages of distillation or preparation takes place in the region).   GIs are recognised as intellectual property rights under the World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). The Geneva Act of the Lisbon Agreement, to which accession of the EU as a Contracting Party is currently ongoing, also provides for protection of appellations of origin and geographical indications.  The EU also protects the names of TSGs to safeguard traditional methods of production and recipes of agricultural products and foodstuffs. |
| Purpose and scope |
| In line with its Better Regulation agenda, the Commission is committed to periodically evaluate, in a proportionate way, all EU activities intended to have an impact on society and the economy. The currently applicable rules for quality schemes are in place respectively for spirit drinks since 2008, for agricultural products and foodstuffs since 2012, for wines since 2013 and for aromatised wines since 2014.  The purpose of this evaluation is to provide an in-depth assessment of the overall functioning of the GIs and TSGs quality schemes of the EU with a focus on GIs registered at EU level (from EU and third countries) and placed on the EU internal market. The GIs protected via bilateral agreements are out of scope.    It shall analyse to what extent the current EU legal framework (i.e. the above-mentioned four Regulations of the Council and the European Parliament) has achieved its objectives in terms of efficiency, effectiveness, relevance, coherence and EU added value. The evaluation will provide the opportunity to consider need for improvement, modernisation, simplification and streamlining of the policy. The evaluation will also examine the coherence of national and regional quality schemes of EU Member States with the EU quality schemes.    According to the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU, the Commission is responsible for safeguarding the GIs as intellectual property rights. In this context, the evaluation will demonstrate the extent to which the Commission protects the intellectual property.    The Commission aims also at ensuring that the evaluation of the EU quality schemes provides a relevant contribution to the design and implementation of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP post 2020).  The results of the Commission evaluation could also be used in the context of the EU international relations at multilateral level, notably in the framework of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). |
| B. Better regulation |
| Consultation of citizens and stakeholders |
| The aim of the envisaged consultation activities is to seek information and feedback from the relevant stakeholders, including a wider public, on the effects of the quality schemes rules applying to the agricultural products, foodstuffs, spirit drinks, wines and aromatised wines.  The public consultation will be launched during the evaluation process (in the course of 2020) for a period of 12 weeks and will be available on the Commission's central public consultations page in all 24 official languages of the EU. The results of the public consultation activities will be summarised and presented in a report, which will be made available on the dedicated page of Agriculture and rural development on Europa.  In addition, different consultation activities in the form of interviews, surveys, workshops, and Civil Dialogue Group meetings will be carried out and included, if possible, in the external evaluation work contract. They will target the following main stakeholders: farmers and farmers' organisations, up and downstream sectors and the retail sector, public authorities responsible for the implementation of the EU quality schemes, academia and experts, as well as NGOs and other civil society organisations active in the field of consumer. |
| Data collection and methodology |
| The evaluation will be supported by an external evaluation study. The framework for the EU quality schemes will be evaluated by analysing and answering a set of evaluation questions. The evaluators will back their findings with quantified evidence, indicating any limitations of the value or soundness of the results obtained.  The evaluation study will use, among other information sources: (1) the European Commission and Member State reports on implementation, enforcement, monitoring and control of the EU quality schemes; (2) European Court of Auditors Special report n°11/2011 on whether the design and management of the geographical indications scheme allow it to be effective; (3) previous evaluations and impact assessments of the EU quality schemes; (4) data in the EU databases and registers of the protected names. Data and information will be complemented, where appropriate, via additional research and through the relevant consultation activities. |

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