Cork County Council Study Visit to Brussels, January 2025

At the end of January, a delegation of fourteen Cork County Council staff and local representatives underwent a packed three day study visit to Brussels.

Starting in the Irish Permanent Representation’s new Cortenberg building, the delegation heard about the role of the Irish Regions European Office and the Irish Delegation to the EU Committee of the Regions from Head of Office Teresa Lennon.

Rounding out the first day of their visit, the group met Cynthia Ní Mhurchú MEP, Micheal O’Conchuir, Secretary General, European Alliance Group, and Nigel Hutson, General Affairs Attache, Irish Permanent Representation to the EU.

On day two the delegation visited the European Commission to first meet Paul Tuinder to discuss renewable energy, followed by meetings with Victoria Petrova to discuss tourism and Stephanie Gantzer-Houzel and Tsvyatko Velikov to discuss local and regional funding opportunities.

The highlight of the visit was a meeting with Commissioner Michael McGrath, where they learned about his new portfolio and discussed Europe’s impact on local and regional politics.

The group then visited the European Parliament to meet with Ireland South MEPs; Billy Kelleher, Sean Kelly, Kathleen Funchion, and Cynthia Ní Mhurchú.

Day three involved meetings at the Irish Permanent Representation to the EU to hear about the role of the the Representation in EU decision making as well as presentations from Lisa Underwood, Energy Attaché and Rob McGuinness, Environment Attache for Ireland.

Round Up of CoR’s 164th Plenary

The 164th Plenary session marked the inaugural meeting of the 2025-2030 CoR mandate. The session began on Wednesday 19th February in the European Parliament’s Hemicycle with a speech from outgoing CoR President Vasco Cordeiro, in which he strongly urged that the position of CoR President be made a full-time role to strengthen the institution’s position within inter-institutional discussions.

Following the outgoing President’s statement, members were allowed to debate with the President of the European Council,  António Costa, a former CoR member. The debate focused on the ongoing war in Ukraine, as well as the European Council’s recently adopted Strategic Agenda 2024-2029.

After this debate the plenary adjourned for the night.

The plenary session restarted on Thursday 20th at 9am with the election of the members of the Bureau, the election of the President and First-Vice President. The Irish delegation nominated the head of delegation Cllr. Gillian Coughlan and Cllr. Jimmy McClearn to the Bureau, while the plenary unanimously elected former deputy mayor of Budapest, Kata Tüttő (PES), as President and President of the Spanish region of Andalucia, Juan Manuel Moreno Bonilla as First Vice-President. The President and First Vice-President will rotate after two and a half years.

Starting in the afternoon, the plenary was presented with a report on the impact of CoR opinions. The headline from this report is that in 2024, the CoR adopted 53 opinions and 4 resolutions, which is slightly lowered compared to previous years (68 in 201, 63 in 2022 and 59 in 2023). However, the report highlights that it is higher than in 2019, a year which is comparable to the EU inter-institutional cycle. Ireland had three opinions adopted in 2024.

Following the adoption of the CoR Commission remits for the new mandate, the plenary held a debate with Commissioner with responsibility for Cohesion Policy Raffaele Fitto. Speaking during the debate Irish Delegation member Cllr Declan McDonnell urged that “Cohesion policy takes a bottom-up approach with more decentralisation of funds”.

An hour later, Thibaut Guignard presented the first opinion of this mandate “How post-27 Leader and CLLD programming could contribute to better implementation of the long-term vision for the EU’s rural areas”. This opinion seeks to address that despite rural regions making up 80% of the EU’s surface area, they can often experience a growing feeling of marginalization, which the opinion posits leads to euroscepticism.

Next, the plenary held a highly topical debate with Europe’s first Commissioner for Housing and energy Dan Jørgensen to discuss Local and Regional Authorities tackling the housing crisis. Despite indications from multiple Irish members to speak on this topic the debate was cut short for time.

Following this there was the presentation of the Paweł Adamowicz Award in recognition of his extraordinary leadership and fostering civic engagement to Vitaliy Klitschko Mayor of Kyiv and to Bassam Aramin and Rami Elhanan, Palestinian and Israeli community leaders working on reconciliation between the communities.

Concluding the inaugural plenary session members were asked to adopt Fernando Lopez Miras’ ‘A Strong European Defence Industry’ and Oszkár Seszták’s ‘Supporting SMEs in regional value chains – fostering the proximity economy’. Both were adopted.

The next plenary session will take place in Brussels on the 2nd and 3rd of March.

Round Up of CoR’s 162nd Plenary

This plenary represented the penultimate session of the mandate and coincided with the European Week of Regions and Cities.

Beginning on Monday 7th October with President Vasco Alves Cordeiro presenting the State of Regions and Cities, the plenary featured a packed agenda of 11 opinions and 6 debates.

During the aforementioned debate on State of Regions and Cities, Irish Delegation member Cllr. Kieran McCarthy made his first intervention of the session highlighting the need for Europe to support its cities and regions. He noted that that this will lead to “a strong trust-filled partnership in multi-level governance”.

Following the debate on the State of Regions and Cities the first day of plenary adjourned.

Day two began with a debate on 20 years after the 2004 EU enlargement. The debate offered an opportunity to look back to the challenges faced by the ten countries who joined in 2004, highlighting lessons to be learned for the nine candidate countries. The debate underlined the importance of developing cohesion policy to ensure that any future growth of the Union does not create any financial disruption.

This was followed by the presentation and adoption of the plenary’s first two opinions, the “Mid-term Review of the Post-COVID European Recovery Plan” and “A Just Transition for all EU Regions”. Both opinions were adopted by members.

The second debate of the day centred on the priorities of the Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the EU. Working under the slogan ‘Make Europe Great Again’, János Bóka, Minister for European Union Affairs highlighted Hungary’s seven presidential priorities.

This was followed by the presentation and adoption of three opinions. Firstly Zdeněk Hřib’s “Creation of a common European Mobility Data Space”, secondly, Giuseppe Varacalli’s “Promotion of Roots Tourism for Sustainable Local Revitalisation” and finally, Ilpo Heltmoinen’s “Shock-proofing European Regions: Strengthening Local and Regional Economic Resilience in the Strategic Evolution of the Single Market”.

Speaking during the opinion on the promotion of roots tourism, Cllr. Kieran McCarthy highlighted the impact of the Gathering noting “The event managed to attract over 250,000 incremental tourists, that would not have travelled to Ireland but for the Gathering. Conservative estimates suggest this contributed at least €170 million to the Irish economy.

Ireland has built on the success of this roots tourism initiative to develop the Global Irish Festival Series. The series is more targeted, seeking to reconnect those with roots to Ireland’s west back home over the course of 2024.”

Following the adoption of the three opinions the plenary adjourned.

The final day began with Antje Grotheer’s opinion on a “Common Implementation Plan for the Pact on Migration and Asylum: the Local and Regional Perspective”. This opinion explores the Pact’s ten building blocks to facilitate practical implementation efforts. Concerning local and regional authorities’ responsibilities towards asylum-seekers, the opinion highlights that it is crucial to keep asylum-seekers well informed about their obligations and rights and have access to counselling and advice so that there are no misunderstandings with authorities and the population.

Following the adoption of Grotheer’s opinion the plenary also adopted Emil Boc’s “Ethical Intelligence and Access to Supercomputing for Start-ups”.

The plenary subsequently heard statements about recent extreme weather events and adopted three opinions. Firstly, “European Wind Power Action Plan”, secondly, “Demographic Change in Europe: a Toolbox for Action” and finally, “Reinforced Quality Framework for Traineeships”.

Speaking during the debate on Reinforced Quality Framework for Traineeships, Cllr. Mick Cahill highlighted Ireland’s support for the reinforced quality framework.

The Plenary concluded with a debate with the President of the European Investment Bank Nadia Calviño, the adoption of an urgent draft resolution on the State of Regions and Cities in the EU and finally adopting Anne Besnier’s opinion on the “Recommendations for the next Framework Programme (FP10) for Research and Innovation”.

The final plenary of the mandate will take place on 20th and 21st November.

Round up of CoR’s 161st Plenary

This plenary session represented the final session before the summer break. The meeting was the first plenary for new Member Cllr Mick Cahill and alternate member Cllr Padraig McEvoy.

The session featured 2 debates and 10 opinions. Due to the transition period following the recent European elections, there were no MEPs in attendance meaning the only statements given in support of opinions or during debate came from Commissioners. Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojiechowski spoke during the debate on the future of CAP, subsequently Commissioners Elisa Ferreira and Iliana Ivanova spoke during the debate on improving EU support for regional research and innovation ecosystems, the role of the Regional Innovation Valleys.

Following the acceptance of minutes the plenary session began with the CoR’s various group leaders giving statements on the recent European election results, the ECR claimed that there is now clear evidence of a swing to the right, the EPP said that the centre is holding and the Greens warned of increasing amounts of misinformation and scaremongering.

Next on the agenda was Towards a Global Green Deal: harmonising global frameworks for climate change, biodiversity and sustainable development which was presented jointly by EPP and PES. The rapporteur, Rafał Kazimierz Trzaskowski (PL/EPP), noted that this opinion focuses on how we respond to the world us. He noted that there is sometimes a feeling, especially in local and regional government, that the current programme is too top down rather than bottom up, this he believes is leading to disenfranchisement as people feel they are being dictated to and shamed for not taking more action. The opinion promotes the power of the CoR to act as an intermediary between the EU and local and regional communities to implement the EU’s Green Deal.

Somewhat aptly this debate was followed by a debate on the Future of the Common Agricultural Policy. This debate focused on the progress of the reformed CAP, which entered force on the 1st January 2023 along with its 10 specific objectives:

  • ensure a fair income for farmers,
  • increase competitiveness,
  • improve the position of farmers in the food chain,
  • climate change action,
  • environmental care,
  • preserve landscapes and biodiversity,
  • support generational renewal,
  • vibrant rural areas,
  • protect food and health quality, and
  • foster knowledge and innovation.

The Commissioner spoke about the importance of ensuring a fair wage is provided for each farmer. Furthermore, he noted that Europe has already had success lowering emissions and increasing productivity and we must now reinforce solidarity with farmers and the international community.

Speaking during the debate, Cllr. Aoife Breslin, noted that:

“ The evidence is clear, emissions must be cut across society, and comparatively those cuts must be higher in the agricultural sector if we are to meet our climate targets.

To this point CAP has demonstrated three things:

  • that global food systems cannot be taken for granted,
  • that climate and environmental considerations must be central to our thinking, and
  • that we must be realistic about the capacity of our farmers and our administrations to manage and adjust to change.

But we also have to be realistic – CAP cannot do everything. Many environmental proposals, such as land restoration, require action and funding well beyond the scope and duration of a typical CAP framework in order to ensure a just transition.

The onus is on us as local and regional representatives to communicate to farmers what the CAP is capable of. Reassure farmers that they won’t be left to face these daunting challenges alone.

I am therefore calling for the EU to listen to our agricultural communities because if we fail to understand them, we will fail to meet the challenges presented by the climate crisis and that will be an indictment of us as a society not just farmers.”

The subsequent opinion attached to the debate was adopted by majority following a vote on over 150 amendments to the text.

The next item to be agreed was the Revision of the CoR Rules of Procedures. A key part of this debate was the inclusion of an amendment to the CoR Rules of Procedure ensuring gender equality rather than gender diversity. Furthermore, the plenary voted in support of an amendment ensuring that each Member States’ bureau delegation would be gender balanced.

This was followed by the aforementioned debate on Improving EU Support for Regional Research and Innovation Ecosystems – The Example of the Regional Innovation Valleys with Commissioner for Cohesion Elisa Ferreira and Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth Iliana Ivanova. During her opening statement Commissioner Ferreira announced that the Commission has identified 151 regions as Regional Innovation Valleys. She noted that this initiative will be supported with €116 million worth of funding under the European Innovation Ecosystems (EIE) programme of Horizon Europe, the EU research and innovation programme,  and the Interregional Innovation Investments (I3) Instrument of the European Regional Development Fund.

All three of Ireland’s regions were announced as Innovation Valleys.

Speaking during the debate, Cllr. Declan McDonnell said:

“Recognition of the North West of Ireland as a Regional Innovation Valley will greatly enhance our ability to coordinate research and innovation investment, and policies.

It will enable us to address regional challenges more effectively while maintaining a strong alignment with EU priorities.

Building on our national and regional Smart Specialisation Strategies, the Northern and Western Regional Assembly is well-positioned to work with leading innovators in our region to tackle specific local challenges through the development of deep-tech innovation.

By collaborating with our universities and key sectors such as Agrifood, Marine and Blue Economy, Tourism, Renewable Energy, Med Tech, and Advanced Manufacturing, we can significantly boost both regional and European competitiveness but also facilitate the implementation of the New European Innovation Agenda within our region.

Our goal is to address critical issues such as climate action, food security, circular economy, digital transformation, and healthcare improvements.”

This debate was followed by the two final opinions of the opening day, firstly Addressing Europe’s Medicine Shortages and later Soil Monitoring and Resilience, both were adopted by the plenary.

Day two of plenary featured five opinions and one debate. Beginning with the adoption of rapporteur Loredana Capone’s opinion – The role of local and regional authorities in the transition towards a circular economy. This opinion seeks to address the issues of biodiversity loss, resource use, climate change impact, and environmental risks to health and well-being which the rapporteur stresses is imperative for achieving sustainability. It was subsequently adopted.

The second opinion of the morning was Mark Speich’s (DE/EPP) opinion Active subsidiarity: a fundamental principle in the EU Better regulation agenda. Setting the context for this opinion the rapporteur stated that “The debate on EU decision-making and on the principle of subsidiarity is topical in view of the upcoming renewal of the institutional term of office and the EU’s strategic agenda”. The opinion’s recommendations would also contribute to the future debate on the revision of the EU Treaties, to the CoR’s position in a potential review of the interinstitutional agreement on better law-making and to the bilateral cooperation agreements with the Parliament and the Commission.

A central theme of the second day was sustainable water management, the topic was featured in one debate and two opinions which were both adopted. The context for the debate centred on the fact that in 2019, 29% of EU territory was affected by water stress for at least one season, and water scarcity is already forcing local and regional authorities (LRAs) to declare drought emergencies, fuelling tensions in local communities and cross-border regions. The CoR note the negative impact that droughts, floods and other extreme weather phenomena are having.

The first of the two final opinions of the plenary was Enhancing the European Administrative Space (ComPAct), which seeks to encourage and strengthen administrative cooperation between Member States. The second was EU roadmap to fight drug trafficking and organised crime. Both were adopted.

Following the adoption of the final opinions, President Vasco Cordeiro welcomed new members recently appointed to the CoR including Irish Member Cllr. Mick Cahill. Cllr. Cahill used the occasion to praise the Just Transition initiative, before noting that he welcomes the next phase of its roll-out and that he hopes that this phase will “look at where the real problems are in Ireland and to localise them”.

URBACT Call for Good Practices Open Now!

The URBACT call for Good Practices is accepting applications until June 30th. The project is seeking existing local practices that are impactful, participatory, integrated, relevant for the European Union and transferable to other European cities.

Cities from European Union’s 27 Member States, Partner States (Norway, Switzerland), cities from countries benefiting from the Instrument for Pre-Accession to the EU (Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia), as well as from Ukraine and Moldova, are invited to submit their good practices. Selected practices will benefit from a variety of visibility and promotional actions with the URBACT City Festival on 8th-10th April 2025 in Wroclaw (PL) as one of the highlights.

In addition to the increased visibility for your town/city, the associated networking and communications opportunities on offer, those initiatives awarded the URBACT Good Practice label have the option of applying as Lead Partner to an URBACT transnational Transfer Network in 2025, giving you the opportunity to both impart your good practice on several other towns or cities around Europe and fine tune your own practice even further!

You can read more about the Good Practice call here where you will find the call’s Terms of Reference, an infographic, as well as other items including a link to the Secretariat’s first and second online info sessions in April and May, and a link to the upcoming June session.

Following the previous call for Good Practices, Cork, Kildare, Longford, and Monaghan were all awarded Good Practice labels in 2017. You can find all selected Good Practices here.

If you interested in applying or have any questions, the national contact point for URBACT is Karl Murphy, kmurphy@emra.ie.

Commission welcomes European Citizens’ Panel recommendations on energy efficiency

150 European citizens adopted 13 recommendations for the European Commission on energy efficiency during the final session of the European Citizens’ Panel on Energy Efficiency, which took place from 12th to 14th April in Brussels.

Using less energy, and using it wisely, is key for clean, secure and affordable energy and an important component of the European Green Deal and the REPowerEU Plan. Energy efficiency helps reduce overall energy consumption and is therefore central to achieving the EU’s climate ambition, while enhancing present and future energy security and affordability.

The Energy Efficiency Directive, recently strengthened as part of the Fit for 55 legislative package, established the ‘energy efficiency first’ as a fundamental principle of EU energy policy, giving it legal standing for the first time. It also significantly raised the EU’s ambition with new EU-level target to improve energy efficiency by 11.7% by 2030, with a stronger emphasis on people affected by energy poverty.

Since February 2024, citizens have gathered to discuss the challenges and benefits of energy efficiency, both in person and online.

The input gathered from both the Panel and the Citizens’ Engagement Platform will now feed into a Commission Recommendation on the “Energy Efficiency First” principle to be considered by the College of Commissioners and ultimately addressed to the Member States later this year.

The final recommendations encourage the Commission to focus in particular on:

  • Increasing the attractiveness of public transport for passengers
  • Delivering the most energy-efficient transport across Europe: Get goods off the road, get people out of planes, and introduce a ‘railway first principle’
  • Expanding the implementation of energy efficiency in buildings
  • Improving the state of skilled labour in the EU in the energy efficiency sector
  • Securing the future through education on green issues
  • Managing and monitoring the implementation of EU directives
  • Helping EU citizens to develop energy communities focused on energy efficiency by providing information and financial support
  • Financing a fair right to energy related home renovation
  • Achieving energy efficiency targets by strengthening everyone’s ability to act
  • Increasing energy independence and efficiency, becoming a global example
  • Developing energy-efficient communities for responsible consumption and increased local energy production
  • Empowering consumers to become energy efficient
  • Optimising and developing the grid system, from producer to the end-user, in favour of renewable energy sources

More information available here.

Commission rolls out plans for a European degree

The European Commission has announced a blueprint for a European degree which will pave the way for a new type of joint programme, delivered on a voluntary basis at national, regional, or institutional level, and based on a common set of criteria agreed at European level.

The Communication proposes a concrete cooperation path between EU Member States and the higher education sector towards the creation of a European degree recognised automatically across the EU.

In view of the diversity of the European higher education systems across Europe, the Commission proposes a gradual approach for Member States towards a European degree, with two possible entry points:

  • A preparatory European label: a label would provide a strong European branding. It would be given to joint degree programmes which meet the proposed European criteria: students receive a European degree label certificate together with their joint degree.
  • A European degree: this new type of qualification would be based on the common criteria and be anchored in national legislation. It would be awarded either jointly by several universities from different countries or possibly by a European legal entity established by such universities: students receive a ‘European degree’ that is automatically recognised.

The Commission have pledged to facilitate and support Member States in the work towards the European degree through a number of concrete actions, including a European degree policy lab supported by Erasmus+ programme, to be set up in 2025, aiming to engage Member States and the higher education community to develop guidelines towards a European degree.

In 2025, the Commission plans to launch ‘European degree pathway projects’ within Erasmus+ programme to provide financial incentives for Member States, together with their accreditation and quality assurance agencies, universities, students, economic and social partners, to engage in the pathway towards a European degree.

More information available here.

Commission allocates additional €10 million to support researchers from Ukraine under Horizon Europe

The Commission has topped up the budget of the MSCA4Ukraine initiative, set up to support researchers forced to flee Ukraine, with an additional €10 million. The scheme, set up under Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) has supported displaced researchers since the start of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine.

The extra funding will enable at least 50 additional researchers, including doctoral candidates and postdoctoral researchers, who were forced to flee Ukraine to continue their work safely on research projects at universities, companies, research centres and other institutions based in the EU and countries associated to Horizon Europe. It will also allow the researchers to access training, skills and career development opportunities. Specific support will be available for organisations hosting the researchers and those fellows relocating with their families.

Since its launch, the MSCA4Ukraine fellowship scheme has supported 125 displaced researchers from Ukraine, being trained and working in 21 countries.

Selected researchers will be able to start a new project or continue their previous work to pursue their research in any subject of their choosing, including on issues directly linked to helping Ukraine and its recovery. Current MSCA4Ukraine fellows are contributing to topics such as investigating war crimes in Ukraine or addressing the mental healthcare needs of displaced Ukrainian women.

The scheme is part of the wider EU support to Ukraine. Specifically in the domain of research and innovation, Ukraine participates in Horizon Europe and the Euratom programme without having to contribute financially. The EU has recently opened a Horizon Europe Office in Kyiv and set up a scheme to help Ukrainian deep-tech companies under the European Innovation Council (EIC).

It has also created a European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) Community Hub in Ukraine, which will give Ukrainian innovators remaining in their home country access to partners, markets, testbeds, trainings and investment.

The next MSCA4Ukraine call is expected to be launched in May 2024, allowing selected researchers to start their fellowships by early 2025. The first step for researchers wishing to apply is to prepare an application together with their potential host organisation, who will then submit the proposal on the researcher’s behalf.

More information available here.

 

ROUND UP OF COR’S 159TH PLENARY

The first CoR plenary session of the year took place in the European Parliament’s Hemicycle between the 31st January and the 1st February. There was strong Irish Delegation engagement over the two-day session with the highlight being the adoption of Irish Delegation member Cllr. Kate Feeney’s opinion on “The SME Relief Package and the BEFIT Framework”.

The session opened with a tribute to Jacques Delors, the 8th President of the European Commission, who died in December. Delors played a key role in the creation of the single market and Euro. From an Irish perspective, Delors was one of the first European representatives to react to the 1994 paramilitary ceasefire and it was at his urging that the EU’s Peace Programme was created.

The first debate of the day concerned the priorities of the Belgian Presidency of the EU, it also contained the first Irish Delegation contribution of the session as Cllr. Dan Boyle intervened to commend the Belgian Presidency for including urbanism as a presidency priority.

The next Irish contribution came from Cllr. Kieran McCarthy, speaking during the debate on the “Towards an integrated EU policy approach to support place-based innovation for the green and digital transition”. Cllr. McCarthy used his intervention to highlight the work of the CoR’s SEDEC Commission in promoting an integrated EU policy approach to support place-based innovation for the green and digital transition.

The evening saw the highlight of the plenary session from an Irish Delegation perspective as Cllr. Kate Feeney presented her opinion “The SME Relief Package and the BEFIT Framework”. During her presentation Cllr. Feeney urged Europe to embrace the “think-small-first” philosophy which her opinion embraced. Following interventions from the floor the opinion was adopted.

Day two of plenary began with an opinion on “Greening Freight Transport” followed by a “Debate on Lessons Learned from COP28: The Critical Role of Local and Regional Leaders for Global Climate Action” which saw Irish Delegation member and CoR COP28 delegation member Cllr. Alison Gilliland present to the plenary floor on her learnings from COP.

The plenary concluded with a debate with EU youth representatives on the forthcoming EU Elections and a presentation from CoR Trainees on their [Y] Factor project “Local and Regional Success Stories”.

The next plenary will take place in conjunction with the Summit of Cities and Regions in Mons on the 18th and 19th of March.

New Regulation on Geographical indication sees protection for craft and industrial projects

The EU has recently adopted a new Regulation on the protection of geographical indications (GI) for craft and industrial projects. Geographical indications (GIs) for craft and industrial (CI) products establish intellectual property rights protection for registered names of products whose quality, reputation or other characteristic are essentially attributable to their geographical origin. For example, products such as Murano glass, Donegal tweed, Solingen cutlery, or Bolesławiec ceramics. The new Regulation will come into effect on 1st December 2025.

The Regulation will be invaluable for a wide range of producers of products that have qualities linked to a specific area, such as jewellery, glass, shoes, textiles, porcelain, musical instruments and furniture. More than 800 products have been identified to qualify as geographical indications for CI products in the EU.

Once implemented, the new CIGIs Regulation will be a significant boost for producers of craft and industrial products. Its purpose is to assist them in preserving the heritage of locally sourced craft and industrial products, allowing them to compete in specific niche markets while maintaining their local knowledge and culture.  European craftsmanship can be found in great diversity in cities, provinces and regions across the EU. Whether Solingen cutlery from Germany, Bohemian crystal glass from the Czech Republic, Limoges porcelain from France, they are all emblems of centuries-old craft traditions and part of Europe’s cultural heritage.

The system will be managed by the European Union’s Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). The Regulation provides that producer groups will be able to submit applications for protection for GIs for craft and industrial products.

Further information can be found here.