On Thursday 22 June, the European Commission adopted exceptional measures to support the European wine sector.
Red and rosé wines from certain regions of France, Spain and Portugal are experiencing difficulties. However, other wines and/or Member States could face similar difficulties in certain production regions, according to the Commission.
In order to prevent unsold wine from burdening the entire internal market and preventing producers from finding sufficient storage capacity for the new harvest, the Commission has adopted an urgent temporary measure to eliminate surpluses.
In particular, this involves temporarily authorising the distillation of wine as part of national support programmes for the wine sector.
Concerning the green harvesting measure already available, the Commission is proposing to relax the rules so that this measure can still be used this summer. The Commission is also proposing temporarily increasing the rate of EU funding for measures linked to promotion, restructuring, green harvesting and investments and allowing Member States to grant certain margins of manoeuvre to beneficiaries of the national support programmes for the wine sector selected in 2023.
Link to the delegated act concerning these measures: https://aeur.eu/f/7ni (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)