Vineyards Magazine

Astrid Lulling MEP (EPP, Lu), with his colleague Michel Dantin (EPP, F) invited friends and colleagues all of the wine industry to discuss the problem of planting rights in the european union..

Currently, the European Commission wants to liberalize planting rights and allow all winemakers throughout Europe to plant new vines without restrictions. Emerging markets like Britain has expressed its position in the voice of the McIntyre MEP (UK, ECR) support the position of the Committee.

Most producing countries (including France, Italy, Spain and Germany) want to limit the planting rights in the UE to keep a stabilised market.

Wine estates owners have worked hard on qualitative recognition of soils and land, and want to avoid a loss of land quality, a price collapse, a loss of wine quality, and environmental disaster that would result from an overproduction  (particularly in terms of the exhaustion of the water)

Unusually, all the ministers of agriculture of the major wine producing countries were present to express the position of their national governments who oppose the liberalization of planting rights.

Many french, italian and spanish MP’s were there to express their opposition to liberalised planting rights.

The representative of the European Commission. said that the commission would hear all parties and that the Commission doesnt’t have expressed its posiiton yet. This is already a shift in the position that the commission has issued since the beginning..

Mrs Lulling, MEP, president of the intergroup “wine” in the EP considers that we are near to a solution. Countries like Belgium and Poland have yet to be won to secure the future of tomorrow the wine industry in the European Union.

Motre to come in our emagazine VINEYARDSPAPER on march 30th 2012