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EU tackles European wine crisis
Member States of the European Union could see their wine-growing areas substantially reduced if rumours from
The Commission’s proposals, to be announced on 22 June, will form the basis of what is hoped will be a deep-rooted reform of the sector. The Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Mariann Fischer Boel, says: "We must increase the competitiveness of the EU’s wine producers, strengthen the reputation of EU quality wine as the best in the world, recover old markets and win new ones. We must create a wine regime that operates through clear, simple rules and ensures balance between supply and demand. And we must create a system that preserves the best traditions of EU wine production and reinforces the social and environmental fabric of wine-producing regions."
The crisis, caused by falling wine consumption in the EU and increasing imports of New World wines, has led the EU to subsidise the industry to the tune of €1.2bn per year. The controversial system of crisis distillation, which cost the EU €180m last year, is one of the main reform targets.
Yesterday, The Wine Management Committee agreed to proposals to allow crisis distillation of wine in France and Italy amounting to a cost of €131million for the EU. From now on, a maximum of 1.5 million hectolitres of table wine and 1.5 million hectolitres of quality wine can be offered for crisis distillation in France. Meanwhile, in Italy crisis distillation has been opened for a maximum quantity of 2.5 million hectolitres of table wine and 100,000 hectolitres of quality wine. (These figures are lower than the allowances requested by both countries). The price paid for the wine to be distilled is €1.914 per % vol per hl for table wine in both France and Italy and €3.00 per % vol per hl for quality wine. Similar demands from Spain and Greece are currently being examined.
Boel commented: "Crisis distillation is becoming a depressingly regular feature of our common market organisation for wine. While it offers temporary assistance to producers, it does not deal with the core of the problem – that Europe is producing too much wine for which there is no market".
© db 8th June 2006