The Portuguese Presidency of the EU Council will ask delegations on Monday 15 March to confirm compromises on wine and to consider softening their position on some of the most contentious issues under debate with the European Parliament, such as market measures and imports (see EUROPE 12673/2).
The Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA) will discuss, among other things, progress in the negotiations with Parliament on the Common Market Organisation (CMO) and the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) on Monday.
A document from the Portuguese Presidency of the EU Council provides an update on the state of play of the talks on the CMO regulation. This document confirms the convergence of views between institutions on wine:
- extension of the system of planting rights authorisations until 2045, without changing the maximum percentage of annual increase;
- maintaining the status quo on authorised varieties (the Commission’s initial proposal was, on the contrary, to lift the ban on hybrids without Vinis vinifera and on six grape varieties);
- on the dealcoholisation of wine, there is agreement on harmonised criteria in the CMO, as a practice applicable to categories of wine, including wines with a protected designation of origin (PDO) or a protected geographical indication (PGI);
- on wine nutrition labelling, the EU Council and Parliament agree on the need to harmonise the CMO rules, accepting the Commission’s proposal to include the full nutritional declaration ‘off label’.
The paper highlights the differences between the EU Council and Parliament on market management and exceptional measures: public intervention and private storage aid, provisions on sugar, trade with non-Member States (additional import duties, import/export licences, special safeguards, imports from non-Member States). On these issues, the EU Council is expected to make some concessions to facilitate an agreement with Parliament.
Link to the Portuguese EU Council Presidency document: https://bit.ly/2PYKatd (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)