High Level Group on Wine presented its final conclusions

The final meeting of the High Level Group on Wine planting rights was on Friday, 14 December. Industry representatives from 27 Member States, observersfrom the Council, from the European Parliament and from Croatia and Commission’s experts conducted a report accompanied by conclusions.

The first High Level Group on Wine was launched on April. It wasinitiated by European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development Dacian Cioloş, The Group hold four meetings. The main objective of the Group was to examine all aspects of wine planting rights and to increase the competitiveness of the European wine sector. The current conclusions of the last meeting will bepresented to the Council and the European Parliament and they will feed the on-going debate about the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy.

The Group pointed out that after the end of the current regime of wine planting rights a new regulatory framework would be implemented (e.g. Protected Denominations of Origin, Protected Geographical Indications and wines without geographical indications). This framework will create fair conditions for the balanced growth of sector. Furthermore, the Group included a new system of “authorizations” for new vine plantings. The authorisations would be free, non-transferable, and valid for a limited period of 3 years and the most important would be accompanied by a safeguard mechanism at EU level. The Member States would set an annual percentage for authorised new planting. If the applications for the new plantings are lower than the States’ thresholds then all of the applications would be granted. The new system would be valid possibly for six years.