By Peggy Corlin - 18th July 2006
EU wine producing countries have attacked the European commission’s proposed reforms, despite recognising the need for an overhaul of the market.
France, Spain and Italy led the criticism of the proposals, formally presented to ministers at the monthly agriculture council in Brussels.“The commission has detailed an array of constraining measures but remains vague over the positive measures,” claimed French agriculture minister Dominique Bussereau.
“That reform is unbalanced and unacceptable as it stands today.”
Europe’s leading wine producers are particularly concerned about plans to force the grubbing up of 400,000 hectares of vines over the next five years.
According to Spain, such measures could cause the desertification of entire regions.
There is also opposition to plans to authorise the use of grape must imported from third countries, which the producer states said would undermine traditional European production techniques.
But while there was general consensus about the need for reform, France said that the commission had gone about it the wrong way.
Paris believes that the best policy would be to strengthen the competitiveness of EU wine producers rather than attacking production.
But such a process would be too lengthy and costly, according to several other member states, in particular the non-producing countries.
The commission plans also include scrapping most existing EU aids, such as crisis distillation procedures which pay producers to turn excess wine into industrial alcohol or biofuels.
The proposed overhaul is considered necessary to boost the chances of the EU wine market in the face of increasing competition from cheaper New World producers.
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