Brussels, 19/04/2011 (Agence Europe) - On the initiative of French Agriculture Minister Bruno Le Maire, France, Germany, Italy, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Hungary, Austria, Portugal and Romania expressed their serious concern on Tuesday 19 April for the wine growing sector in Europe with the planting rights system due to be abolished in 2015. These nine countries want rules governing planting rights to cover all EU countries and all categories of wine.
In a letter to European Commissioner Dacian Cioloº, the agriculture ministers from the nine countries argue that the planting rights system helps ensure the quality of European wines, and the stability of wine markets, assure controlled development of production and maintain wine-making activities in areas with little agricultural potential.
The ministers call on the Commission to bear these concerns in mind in the review of measures that apply to the wine-growing sector. The Commission is due to bring forward its proposals on the reform of the common agricultural policy (CAP) post-2013 in September and to draft a report on the wine-growing sector before the end of 2012.
“It would appear that the disadvantages linked to the abolition of planting rights would largely outweigh the expected benefits”, the latter says. Fears spring from a number of perceived risks: - over-production leading to a fall in prices resulting from too great an increase in supply related to non-controlled planting; - abandonment of less productive wine-growing areas; - a reduction in the number of family businesses (loss of jobs); - undermining of the renown of protected designation of origin (PDO) wines through the planting of vines for wine production with no geographic indication inside the PDO area or very close to it; - devaluing of quality products resulting from an increase in the area under vine and progressive standardisation of production; - over-industrialisation of European wine making.
Commission response. The European Commission points out that it was the member states themselves which, in 2008, took the decision to abolish planting rights in 2015. It wants to reassure the above-mentioned nine countries, making it clear that these rights “will not disappear from one day to the next”. Each country will be able retain them until 2018 if it is felt their rapid disappearance might present too great a risk to certain vineyards. In addition, by that time, an important development will have taken place. Next year, the Commission will present a much more detailed analysis of the impact of the reform. It will then be able to assess whether conditions are such that, over the next few years, each segment of the wine market will be able to achieve its full potential, particularly from the point of view of product quality. (L.C./transl.rt)