EU wine sector at 'crossroads, political measures coming'

(ANSA) - ROME, JAN 24 - The European Commission is working to present a roadmap for the implementation of a series of policy measures to alleviate the crisis in the wine sector in Europe, following the recommendations of the EU High Level Group on Wine.
    "The evaluation of the recommendations has already begun," Pierre Bascou of the European Commission's DG Agri said, taking stock of the work of the group that concluded in December during a hearing in the European Parliament's Agriculture Committee (Agri).
    Bascou highlighted the EU executive's concerns about the conditions of the sector which today "is at a crossroads".
    After a "decade of success and increased sales and exports, the sector is facing a difficult situation", the official noted, citing among the criticisms "the contraction in demand both on the internal market and on the traditional EU export market", the economic consequences "of the pandemic", "lower consumer confidence and the volatile, if not turbulent, international situation".
    In addition to its structural weaknesses, the "market - he pointed out - is also affected by growing uncertainty in production due to climate change and wine-growing regions", such as Italy, "are suffering the effects of drought and extreme weather".
    The High Level Group on Wine concluded its work in December last year, formulating a series of policy recommendations for the European Commission, which can be summarised in three blocks: aligning wine production with demand, increasing resilience to market and climate challenges and adapting to trends to seize new market opportunities.
    The recommendations were delivered to the European Commissioner for Agriculture, Christophe Hansen, who promised to get to work to "prepare a timetable for their possible implementation".
    The European Commission representative also opened up to the possibility of reviewing the labelling rules on wine.
    "At the moment we do not have the legal competence to establish additional rules for the labelling of wine products through delegated or implementing acts" but "given the request of the sector and some members of the European Parliament, it is possible to discuss a review of the wine labelling rules between the institutions", Bascou said, stressing that the Commission "has done and continues to do its best to ensure a harmonised interpretation and implementation of the applicable rules through guidelines" published in 2023. Bascou explained that "it is not certain that consumers can assume that the letter 'I' next to the QR code means that the code refers to the detailed list of ingredients. In this case - he noted - the consumer's right to have access to product information must be balanced with the desire of wine producers to minimise the burden of printing additional labels when selling their product abroad".
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