07/06/2006 (Agence Europe) - As anticipated (see EUROPE 9205), the Management Committee for Wine has approved the French and Italian requests to open the crisis distillation mechanism, to get rid of some of their excess wine. A maximum of 1.5 million hectolitres of table wine and 1.5 million hectolitre-res of quality wine will be allowed for France (Paris requested 2 million hectolitres in each category). For Italy, crisis distillation is available for a maximum of 2.5 million hectolitres of table wine and 100,000 hectolitres of quality wine (Rome had wanted 3 million hectolitres and 100,000 hectolitres respectively). A Commission press release said that similar requests from Spain and Greece were still under examination (a decision is expected sometime in June: Ed.).