Brussels, 05/11/2015 (Agence Europe) - The member states are currently putting in place a new system for granting licences to plant vines.
It is a huge task but those in the sector are optimistic, said Thierry Coste, who chairs Copa-Cogeca's wine working group, in Brussels on Wednesday 4 November.
The new system will allow licences to be granted for all wine segments (PDO, PGI and non-GI) and throughout the whole territory. These licences will be non-transferable and granted free of charge for all planting subject to prior authorisation (new planting, replanting, early replanting and authorisation of converted rights). In Coste's view, the new system will be “far more beneficial than the total liberalisation that the European Commission proposed some years ago”. With the ending of quotas for milk (2015) and sugar (2017), the wine sector will be the only sector having an instrument to manage production potential.
“We are about to move from a system of planting rights that was linked to the vineyard and could be sold and transferred to one where licences are free, are linked to the wine-grower and are non-transferable”, Coste told press. Wine-growers who wish to create a new plantation will have to seek a licence from the country or the region. The licence will be granted if it falls within a total surface area of between 0 and 1% of the surface area of the member state (maximum of 7,600 hectares for France). There will also be planting rights that can be turned into licences. Depending on the country, timescales will differ for turning the rights into licences. By 2020, planting rights will no longer exist: there will, therefore, be one single authorisation system. For replanting (grubbing up of a piece of land to replant vines), the system will be automatic.
A Commission document reveals that Luxembourg, Malta and Cyprus have indicated their intentions not to implement the authorisation system. Thirteen countries will do so from 1 January 2016 (Spain, France, Italy, Portugal, Germany, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Greece, Austria, Slovakia, Slovenia and the Czech Republic). In line with the regulation, these 13 countries will have to keep a register of vines containing up-to-date information on production potential. For converting rights into authorisations, 11 of the 13 have indicated that they are setting a deadline of 31 December 2020 (Slovakia has set a deadline of the end of 2019 and Slovenia, the end of 2017).
Regulation 1308/2013 on common market organisation (CMO) brought in a new EU-wide instrument for managing wine production potential from 1 January 2016, based on system of planting licences which replaces the old system of planting rights. Every year, member states will have to make available planting licences corresponding to a maximum of 1% of the total national area under vines.
The new system (valid from 1 January 2016 to 31 December 2030) will: - grant planting licences for all wine segments (protected designation of origin, protected geographical origin and non-geographical indication) across the whole of the territory; - grant planting licences free of charge: new planting, replanting, early replanting, planting resulting from rights conversion; - make planting licences granted non-transferable; - exempt from the need for a licence those plantations intended for experiment, for family or assimilated use or used as graft nurseries, and planted land that has been lost as a result of compulsory purchase in the public interest.
The new system will allow potential to be regulated. Where supply outstrips demand or in the event of a threat of significant depreciation of a geographical indications (PDO or PGI), the regulation could allow: - the land made available nationally for new plantations to be reduced; - quotas to be introduced for new planting at regional level and, if necessary, by segment or PDO/PGI; - restrictions on replanting to be put in place.
2015 has been a very good year. Coste said that 2015, which has seen a 2.7% increase in production (see EUROPE 11424), has been “a very good year”, thanks to weather conditions (warm and dry in July and cooler during maturation). “Consumers are in for a treat with European wines”, he stated. Production, he said, is firmly within the average for the years 2008-2009 to 2012. “2015 is a reference year as we have a good production volume and very fine quality”, he said. He spoke, too, of a dynamic market (good balance of supply and demand) and said that there was no increase in European stocks in cellars. He ruled out price volatility, though there may be a slight price increase, he said. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)