Special report Europese Rekenkamer inzake GI

European Court of Auditors. Special report 11/2011. Do the design and management of the Geographical Indications scheme allow it to be effective, ISSN 1831-0834.

Europese Rekenkamer heeft in een 'audit' beoordeeld of de Commissie het Geografisch Indicatie-systeem beheert op een manier die het mogelijk maakt effectief te voldoen aan de doelstellingen. Drie criteria werden gebruikt voor de audit, namelijk de robuustheid van het gedefinieerde systeem, de aantrekkelijkheid van de regeling voor potentiële aanvragers en consumentenbewustzijn:

The audit concluded that overall, clarification is needed on a number of issues concerning the control system for the GI scheme and there is no clear strategy for promoting and raising awareness of the scheme amongst both producers and consumers: 

• the legal provisions do not lay down minimum requirements for Member States’ checks on product specifications;
• the regulation does not clearly define the Member States’ obligation to carry out checks to prevent and detect disallowed practices;
• with the result that most of the national authorities audited do not carry out regular checks in view of detecting and suppressing these practices;
• the Commission does not monitor closely the implementation of the GI scheme in the Member States. No audits on the GI scheme have been carried out so far;
• the potential applicants are often not aware of the scheme or are discouraged by the lengthy application procedures;
• consumer recognition of the scheme and its symbols is very low.