High Level Meeting on Wine Policy: European wine companies request EU policy to look forward and focus on markets, consumers and competitiveness of companies willing to remain and invest in the sector

Brussels, 11 September 2024 – Today, the European Committee of Wine Companies (CEEV) actively participated in the European Commission’s High-Level Meeting on the future of wine policy. At this critical gathering with EU Member States, CEEV outlined its strategic vision to tackle the challenges facing the wine sector and proposed key solutions to ensure its long-term sustainability.

Mauricio González-Gordon, President of CEEV, highlighted the pressing need for comprehensive reform: “The EU wine sector is confronting both structural and immediate challenges. This meeting was timely and essential for a strategic discussion on the future of EU wine policy, and we are grateful to the Commission for taking this initiative. The future of the EU wine sector rests with operators who are committed to its sustainability and development, and EU policies should focus on them and prioritize their needs.”

While grape and wine production are facing some critical challenges due to production costs increases and climate change impacts the long-term structural wine consumption decline, particularly in traditional markets, is at the heart of today’s EU wine sector crisis.

Therefore, CEEV is convinced that solutions should focus on wine markets and consumers and not only on the functioning of the wine supply chain. Support should aim at boosting, on the one side, wine operators competitiveness and capacity to adapt to markets demand, and, on the other, their resilience to climate change with adaptation and mitigation measures.

To secure the future of EU wine companies, CEEV proposed a range of policy priorities based on :

• Streamlining CAP Strategic Plans: Simplify administrative processes, particularly in promotion and communication measures, to make national support more efficient and flexible.
• Updating Wine CMO and Labelling Rules: Implement a language-free system for wine product presentation supported by a robust digital strategy.
• Simplifying EU E-commerce Rules: Adapt distance selling policies to make e-commerce more accessible.
• Regulating Dealcoholized Wine Products: Develop a comprehensive legal framework for the production and labelling of dealcoholized and partially dealcoholized wine products.
• Establishing EU Sustainability Guidelines: Define general principles for sustainable wine production and communication.
• Improving Market Access: Enhance procedures to boost exports and address technical barriers to trade.

“We also need to better manage production potential to improve the balance between production and demand” said Ignacio Sánchez Recarte, Secretary General of CEEV. “We presented to the Commission and Member States our recommendations for this balance, stressing that green harvesting should be the sole ‘corrective’ measure employed and strongly advising against introducing a generalized grubbing-up mechanism. If public funds were to be allocated for such actions, strict conditions must be applied ” he emphasized.

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DOWNLOADS

• CEEV Priorities for the High-Level Meeting on Wine Policy
• CEEV Manifesto on the future of EU wine sector – Summary version
• Annex to the CEEV Manifesto – Challenges of the EU wine sector