Brussels, 01/04/2010 (Agence Europe) - At is General Assembly on 30 March, the Comité européen des enterprises vins (CEEV) reaffirmed its support to the implementation of the Wine CMO Reform “with a view to increase the sector's competitiveness and promote the quality of EU wines”. The wine sector, with its exports of almost 6 billion per year, brings almost €3 billion to the EU's trade balance, notes the CCEV, which represents the wine industry and trade in the EU.
CEEV President Lamberto Vallarino Gancia, who was re-elected for a further 3-year term of office at the General Assembly, said, “The CEEV wishes the Reform to keep on being implemented in the respect of its objectives, especially to improve the EU wines competitiveness through a better orientation towards the consumers' expectations. In a context of growing international competition, it is crucial to make best use of the support measures and regulation measures on enological practices and labelling, so as to allow the European offer to lead in all segments and on all markets”.
The CEEV says that the support measures for investment and promotion (decided by EU member states) did not quite live up to expectations during the first year of implementation of the reform. The industry advocates continued re-orientation of investment of the common market organisation (CMO) towards dynamic measures.
The CEEV welcomes the “strong orientations” of the quality of agricultural products policy which mean that the specificity of wine and its geographical indications can be maintained. Other important issues also feature high on the agenda for the coming years, such as consumer information, fiscal issues, and improving the access of European wines to third country markets. (L.C./transl.rt)