On Friday 28 March, the European Commission adopted a proposal containing measures to support the European wine sector, which is currently experiencing difficulties (see EUROPE 13595/6). The text could be adopted by the co-legislators by the end of 2025.
In terms of production potential, five measures are planned:
- to address the structural oversupply of wine, one of the proposed measures aims to remove administrative penalties for unused replanting and new planting authorisations granted before 1 January 2025. These are authorisations for new plantings which producers will renounce by a certain date: 31 December 2026. The aim of this proposal is to give winegrowers who are not sure if they want to plant or replant an incentive not to plant new vineyards in the current situation of structural oversupply;
- the validity of replanting authorisations will be extended to eight years. No administrative penalties will apply if they are not used. The stated aim is to give growers more time to evaluate and analyse market demand and assess changes in consumption in order to determine whether it is possible to replant;
- it is proposed that Member States be given new tools to limit the issue of new planting authorisations at regional level for areas or regions at risk of oversupply or for regions that have implemented distillation, grubbing up or ‘green harvesting’ measures. In addition, Member States will be able to set rules for replanting authorisations, which will help to preserve landscape features (sloping vineyards, terraced vineyards) and avoid the relocation of vineyards from more hilly areas to lowland areas (to avoid a structural surplus);
- The European Commission plans to amend the rules on strategic plans implementing the CAP: EU countries will be able to set specific conditions to ensure that there is no significant increase in vineyard yields when restructuring and conversion take place;
- Member States will be able to use more flexible tools in the event of a market crisis, thanks to the implementation of voluntary or compulsory wine distillation, voluntary ‘green’ harvesting or voluntary grubbing up of productive vineyards. The objective: to limit production during a large harvest. These tools can be financed at national level.
Alcohol-free wine. To ensure a harmonised approach and use terms that are more familiar to consumers, the Commission is proposing two new definitions for this category:
- ‘alcohol-free wine’: for wine products with a maximum alcoholic strength of 0.5% by volume. This term will be accompanied by 0.0% if the alcoholic strength does not exceed 0.05% by volume;
- ‘alcohol-light’: for wine products with an alcoholic strength of more than 0.5%, but less than 30% of the minimum alcoholic strength for the product category in question.
Labelling. According to a European source, “our proposal will further simplify the free movement of wines throughout the European Union by harmonising QR codes, i.e. quick response codes”. The Commission proposes it be empowered to establish common rules for identifying QR codes to provide information on the list of ingredients and the nutrition declaration of wine. This could be done, for example, by means of a pictogram or symbol, instead of the information that currently appears on packaging or labels.
Sparkling wines. Regarding the production of de-alcoholised sparkling wine and aerated sparkling wine, the rules will be updated to allow the use of de-alcoholised or partially de-alcoholised wine for their production. The proposal also aims to extend the rules on de-alcoholisation and wine labelling to flavoured wine products.
The Commission proposes that producer organisations in the wine sector have access to the maximum rate of EU financial support for investment and innovation.
To better address the challenges posed by climate change, public support of 50% of eligible costs is available. The Commission is proposing this rate be increased to 80% in the future.
In addition, the conditions for supporting promotion operations, particularly in third countries, will be modified. The Commission proposes increasing the maximum duration of these promotional actions from three to five years.
Finally, the Commission is proposing to boost wine tourism by giving producer groups managing geographical indications access to aid to promote wine tourism in certain regions.
Link to the proposal: https://aeur.eu/f/g5o (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)