On Tuesday 10 February in Strasbourg, the European Parliament approved (625 votes in favour, 15 against and 11 abstentions) the text resulting from an agreement with the Council of the EU on measures to support the wine sector (see EUROPE 13766/9).
Member States will be able to support actions such as grubbing up surplus vines. The end date for the planting rights scheme has been removed and replaced by a revision period (within 10 years).
The text (https://aeur.eu/f/kno ) contains key measures, said Esther Herranz García (EPP, Spanish), the rapporteur on this dossier, during the debate. She cited the abolition of the deadline for planting authorisations, European funding for the grubbing-up of vineyards, more flexible labelling and greater support for promotion and wine tourism. Increased support is also planned to combat vineyard diseases.
For Éric Sargiacomo (S&D, French), with this reform, “we are restoring the foundations of public regulation of the sector” and “we are giving winegrowing organisations new tools to achieve a better sharing of value and enable winegrowers to see the light at the end of the tunnel”. He asked the European Commission to approve France’s request to activate the crisis reserve for distillation. The Commissioner for Agriculture, Christophe Hansen, replied that his departments were analysing the data provided by France, while pointing out that the crisis reserve only had €450 million available per year.
Benoît Cassart (Renew Europe, Belgian) welcomed the labelling rules, “which use the term ‘reduced alcohol’ rather than ‘low alcohol’, which could be misleading”.
Mr Hansen said that he had taken note of the European Parliament’s requests to examine certain amendments that had not been included in the final text. These include the introduction of a clear symbol to identify the QR code on wine labels, possible administrative simplifications in the granting of replanting authorisations, the definition of conditions for the grubbing-up of abandoned vineyards and an increase in advance payments for winegrowing interventions in CAP strategic plans.
The text must be approved by the EU Council before the new rules can come into force. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)