Brussels, 17 December 2024 – Yesterday, during the 4th and last meeting of the EU High-Level Group on wine, a set of policy recommendations for the future of the EU wine sector were adopted by the Commission and Member States, in the presence of the new EU Commissioner for agriculture and food, Mr Christophe Hansen.
Mauricio González-Gordon, President of the Comité Européen des Entreprises Vins (CEEV), expressed optimism about the outcome: “We welcomed the establishment of this High-Level Group on wine—a commendable initiative by the Commission – to address the critical challenges we face and propose necessary solutions. The structural decline in wine consumption remains the bottleneck of our problems and future policies must focus on wine markets and consumer expectations. While EU regulation cannot address all challenges, it can create the framework for the wine sector to navigate these difficult times successfully.”
CEEV underscored the three pivotal principles included in the recommendations: Competitiveness, Sustainability, and Resilience. EU support should prioritize operators investing in the sector, should promote innovation and not focus on destructive measures. This is critical to fostering a vibrant and sustainable wine industry.
CEEV acknowledged the inclusion of several of its key proposals in the adopted recommendations, including:
- Extending the validity of replanting authorisations, exploring strategies to manage excessive yield while promoting green harvesting and limiting the use of grubbing-up schemes;
- A greater flexibility in the financial management of the wine sectoral programmes;
- Maintaining a robust EU export strategy and reinforcing promotion programmes;
- Reinforcing climate change adaptation measures;
- Establishing new rules for dealcoholized and partially dealcoholized wines, as well as for wine tourism and distance selling;
- Developing urgently a harmonised and more complete e-labelling system, that should be based on a language-free system of identification of the QR-code on the label.
Even if not included in the recommendations, CEEV believes that the definition of the principles for sustainable grape and wine production is an area the EU must still address.
During the meeting, Ignacio Sánchez Recarte, Secretary-General of CEEV, highlighted a unique concern with the recommendations proposed: “We must maintain a level playing field and therefore we will not support policies that differentiate based on legal structure, such as companies versus cooperatives.”
“We look forward to working with the Commission to develop these recommendations and have them translated into a concrete legal framework as soon as possible. For example, the development of new rules for e-labelling systems and No-Low wines are the sector’s immediate priorities” he concluded.
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Policy recommendations for the future of the EU wine sector:
Participants in the 4th Meeting of the High Level Group on the future of Eu wine policy. (Credit: European Commission)
NOTE TO EDITORS
- Comité Européen des Entreprises Vins (CEEV – www.ceev.eu) represents the wine companies in the industry and trade in the European Union: still wines, aromatised wines, sparkling wines, liqueur wines and other vine products. It brings together 25 national organisations and its members produce and market the vast majority of quality European wines, with and without a geographical indication, and account for over 90% of European wine exports.
- Media contact: Dr Ignacio Sánchez Recarte, CEEV Secretary General, ceev@ceev.eu, Mobile: +32 (0)476 88 36 75