In December 2019, COVID-19 broke out in the Chinese municipality of Wuhan, quickly spreading to other regions of China then to the rest of the world. By January 2020, isolated cases had appeared in the EU. By March, all EU Member States had reported COVID-19 cases and governments were forced to adopt emergency restriction measures to restrain the spread of the new coronavirus, causing devastating effects on all sectors of the EU economy, including on the wine sector.
CEEV 1st COVID-19 Wine Package – April 2020
In April 2020, CEEV issued a first detailed “COVID-19 Wine Package” assessing the early impact of the crisis on the wine sector and suggesting a first set of recommendations for both emergency and recovery measures to be submitted to the European Commission for their consideration in order to mitigate the short- and mid-term effects of the COVID-19 crisis on the wine sector.
While, at the time, the wine sector needed some emergency measures to be adopted at EU level to alleviate the immediate impact of the crisis, it was clear that mid-term recovery measures were also needed for our sector to fully recover after such a crisis.
In this framework, the first CEEV COVID-19 Wine Package advocated for:
- Extraordinary measures to help wine companies survive the immediate effects of the COVID-19 crisis, mainly by protecting their financial cash-flow
- Recovery measures establishing more efficient and flexible tools allowing EU wine companies to rebuild wine markets and regain market shares at global level.
CEEV 2nd COVID-19 Wine Package – March 2021
Almost one year after the publication of its first Wine Package CEEV has assessed more in detail how the COVID-19 crisis has impacted the wine sector, how the extraordinary measures put in place by the European Commission in 2020 have worked and what is needed to efficiently support the mid- and long-term recovery of our sector.
While the extraordinary measures offered a much-needed short-term relief to wine companies, the emergency measures implemented by the European Commission, such as crisis distillation, green harvesting or private storage, have shown their limits and appear unfit for a longer-term support. The only way to ensure a sustainable future to the EU wine sector is to bring European wines to the market, through promotion and investment tools that shape our future competitiveness.
In its “COVID-19 2nd Wine Package” issued in March 2021, CEEV comes up with a second set of recommendations for recovery measures, emphasising the need for:
- Market-oriented measures to support our sector in restoring its competitiveness, rebuilding markets and regaining market shares at global level
- Financial support to help wine companies confronted with a lack of cashflow
- Limited implementation of emergency and market-control measures