The European Commission adopted, on Monday 25 January, a proposal asking the EU Council of Ministers to authorise it to negotiate a bilateral agreement on geographical indications (GIs) between the European Union and Mongolia.
The European Union, its Member States and Mongolia are signatories to the Framework Agreement on Partnership and Cooperation which entered into force on 1 November 2017. One article of this agreement, which deals with the protection of intellectual property, provides that the parties agree to conclude, as soon as possible, a bilateral agreement on geographical indications.
Geographical indications are known and well-established in Mongolia, where there are currently twenty GIs registered at the national level under a specific law. As this country is renowned for its traditional products, it offers the opportunity to derive substantial economic benefits from the use of geographical indications.
The initiative aims to provide a high level of direct protection for several short lists of EU GIs in Mongolia and Mongolian GIs in the EU. It will give a competitive advantage to producers of products bearing a geographical indication. In particular, small producers in Mongolia will benefit from better access to the EU's very large market.
The Union has exclusive competence in the field of GIs for the protection, at Union level, of agricultural products such as foodstuffs, aromatised wines, wines and spirits. However, there is currently no EU-wide system of protection for non-agricultural geographical indications.
Link to the proposal: https://bit.ly/3oiZa0x (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)