Brussels, 23/06/2006 (Agence Europe) - Unsurprisingly, the new wine reform proposals unveiled by the European Commission on 22 June (see EUROPE 9217) have left a sour taste in the mouth of various Member States and wine production organisations.
France described the draft reforms as 'unacceptable', with French prime minister Dominique de Villepin saying he would try and change the most undesirable aspects, like massively destroying thousands of hectares of vineyards and cutting the budget for the EU's wine market organisation. French farm minister Dominique Bussereau told AFP that the European Commission's proposals were totally off the wall and France, with the other big wine-producing Member States, would be throwing its whole weight behind getting them amended. In a press release, Bussereau said EU wine-making should not become a variable in the global market. Backed by all French farmer and wine-producing organisations, the French government is also challenging the liberalisation of planting rights, describing it is a big mistake because the market is already suffering from overproduction both in the EU and worldwide.
Spain also opposes the draft reforms particularly the grubbing up (uprooting) of vineyards. Spanish farm minister Jose Puxeu said the aim of reform should be to reach a balance in the market among the interests of grape growers and industry, but this aim is not included in the European Commission's report. Spain welcomes the fact that each Member States is being given the option of having a national budget large enough to cover the reform measures.
The two biggest organisations of controlled origin wines in the EU, the CNAOC (Confederation nationale des producteurs de vins et eaux-de-vies de vin a AOC - a French organisation) and FEDERDOC (Confederazone nazionale dei consorzi volontari per la tutela delle denominazione di origine - an Italian organisation) regret that the Commission's ideas lack dynamism and coherence. CNAOC President Christian Paly said global wine consumption was rising every year and future prospects were encouraging, but to enable the EU's wine to be competitive, much more was required than a social plan involving grubbing up 400,000 hectares and a budget of EUR 2.4 ban over 5 years as suggested by the Commission. He said most resources should be aimed at promoting and marketing EU wine, as CNAOC has long been calling for. Both the French and the Italian organisation say that the competitiveness of the wine making industry requires a policy to improve the protection and promoting of high quality EU wine, and oppose the Commission's plan to allow EU wine to be mixed with wine from outside the EU and to allow grape juice imported into the EU to be turned into wine.
COPA (the Committee of Agricultural Organisations in the EU) and COGECA (the General Committee of Agricultural Cooperatives in the EU) say they are very disappointed in the plans and are unhappy about the mass grubbing up of vineyards, which may destabilise several wine-making regions of the EU. The organisations fear that cutting wine production in the EU will lead to wine imports from other countries. COPA and COGECA also oppose the idea of turning grape juice from outside the EU into wine in the EU, and mixing EU wine with wine from outside the EU.
Favouring in-depth reform of the wine industry in the EU, the wine industry group Comite europeen des enterprises vins (CEEV) says the Commission's plans do not go far enough. It calls for more money to promote responsible wine-drinking, a redeployment of budget resources to get more people drinking wine and for new export markets and for wine market observation and monitoring units to be established. CEEV says the EU wine market organisation should not be deprived of resources by transferring money to rural development and renationalising measures paving the way for distorted competition and discrimination among wine growing and marketing structures in the different Member States.
The European Council of Young Farmers (ECYF) agrees that the distillation funds need to be urgently reviewed and savings made should be used for other purposes but: 'Rather than a policy of abolishing production areas and spending significant financial resources on permanent grubbing up of vineyards to reduce the production of low quality wine as proposed by the European Commission, we believe in a policy upkeeping the current level of production areas, but reducing quantities through introducing green harvesting, increasing the use of must in wine producing, and increasing sales through reinforcing measures to increase competitiveness and strengthening the reputation of European wine on the market. Though we fully agree that it is time to re-evaluate the instrument of distillation and reorient the budget saved to the use of other measures.'