Brussels, 23/01/2012 (Agence Europe) - French Agriculture Minister Bruno Le Maire has welcomed the creation of a high-level group on wine-growing, announced by European Agriculture Commissioner Dacian Ciolos.
The commissioner told the Agriculture Council on Monday 23 January: “I have taken the initiative of setting up a high-level group to consider the issue of planting rights in the wine sector. I hope that we will be able to get round the table to hold a structured debate and listen to the arguments. … I think this is the most effective way to find solutions”. In the group's discussions on the future of the sector and, in particular, what the future should hold for planting rights, nothing will be ruled out and there will be no preconceived notions, Ciolos said. He hopes the group will be in a position to submit its conclusions to him before the end of this year.
Le Maire wants the issue of the retention of planting rights in the wine-growing sector to be discussed within the new group, according to a timetable that fits in with the timescale for the drafting of the new common agricultural policy (CAP). French President Nicolas Sarkozy repeated his opposition to liberalisation of planting rights on an official visit on 28 July 2011.
France is calling for the retention of regulation instruments to assure farmers of a decent, stable income, the French Agriculture Ministry says. The joint Franco-German position, signed on 14 September 2010, puts agriculture market regulation at the very centre of negotiations on the CAP after 2013. In a joint letter to Commissioner Ciolos on 14 April 2011, the 12 major wine-producing states called on the European Commission to take account of their opposition to the ending of planting rights.
EFOW, the organisation which represents the producers of origin wines has welcomed the commissioner's move. “It's a first step from the Commission and we welcome it”, said EFOW President Riccardo Ricci Curbasto. Vice-President Bernard Farges added: “We are looking for definite decisions in the short term, that is, as part of the CAP reform before the end of 2012”.
President of the Assemblée de régions européennes viticoles (AREV) Jean-Paul Bachy “is pleased” by the announcement that the commissioner will set up “ a high-level reflection group” on the wine sector and, in particular, on planting rights. AREV represents 75 wine-producing regions in Europe and has been campaigning for years against the liberalisation of planting rights planned for 2016. Bachy will “write to the European commissioner to offer to be a member of the proposed group”. He hopes that an outcome that will retain control over planting rights will be reached this year, within the framework of the reform of the CAP. AREV is awaiting the findings of a scientific study of the social, economic and environmental impact of liberalising planting rights and hopes to receive them in early March. It will brief the group to be set up by the commissioner on the results of the study.
The Comité européen des enterprises vins (CEEV) is against the maintenance of an EU-wide ban on new planting and welcomes the proposal for a new high-level group. “The phased and balanced roll-out of the recent wine sector reform, according to the agreed stages, must be fully respected”, said CEEV Secretary General José Ramon Fernandez. He argued that a key part of the reform, such as ending the European ban on new planting should not be called into question “without addressing all the other issues in the wine sector, including opportunities for improving the economic regulation of the sector”. “We must break free from a system of a total, blind EU ban which takes no account of the extraordinary diversity of wine growing in Europe and which is putting a brake on the dynamism of those working in the sector and their adjustment to the market”, says CEEV which is the representative body of the EU industry and trade in wines.
Agriculture Commissioner Ciolos announced in Berlin on Thursday 19 January that he was to set up a high-level reflection group on the wine sector, which would address in particular the issue of planting rights. For several months, the liberalisation of these planting rights, scheduled for 2016, has been creating a great hue and cry among wine growers and many MEPs. 13 member states, accounting for 97% of EU wine production, and the European Parliament have asked the European Commission to bring forward a legislative text overturning the decision to liberalise planting rights. (LC/transl.rt)