Brussels, 28/11/2007 (Agence Europe) - The Portuguese presidency is not certain that the EU Council of Agriculture Ministers will arrive at a compromise in December on the reform of the common organisation of the wine market, but noted, on Tuesday 27 November, a unanimous will among the member states to arrive at a political agreement in the “very short term”.
Following trilateral meetings held by the presidency and the Commission with each of the delegations, Jaime Silva, the Portuguese agriculture minister, presented the three major issues still to be negotiated at the next Agriculture Council (17-19 December): 1) the end to the planting rights system. The 1999 reform had set the date for the abolition of planting rights at 2010. The Commission has proposed postponing this date to 2013. Although some countries, such as France, are demanding a rendezvous clause before taking a decision, the presidency thinks that a date should be fixed; 2) the suppression of the option of adding sugar to wines (a majority of countries are demanding that this centuries-old process be maintained in the north of Europe); 3) the range of measures which can be financed within the national envelopes. France is demanding that an obligatory crisis distillation be kept and aid for the distillation of by-products of winemaking; Spain is appealing for aid for the distillation of potable alcohol, whereas Italy is defending must aid.
Mr Silva called on some countries not to ask for more than the budget envisaged for the CMO (€1.3 billion per year). Some new member states (including Romania, Bulgaria and Cyprus) feel hard done by and are contesting the criteria (vineyard area, production, etc) for the attribution of national envelopes.
Finally, the Council has given a mandate to the Special Committee on Agriculture (SCA) to finalise the work with a view to finding a compromise on the following aspects of the reform: - grubbing-up (a consensus has been agreed to decrease the duration of the programme from five to three years. Certain budgetary aspects remain to be clarified); - the mention of the grape and year on wine labels without geographical indication; - the professional and interprofessional organisations. (L.C.)