Vineyards Magazine

Last Friday 14th December was held the last meeting of the High Level Group on wine, created by the Commissioner for Agriculture Dacian Cioloş to discuss the theme of planting rights.

The representatives of the 27 Member States participated in the work and also industry experts and observers of the Council, the European Parliament. As expected, the Group has approved its conclusions on the theme of planting rights, including: a support for the idea of ​​maintaining the system of planting rights for all categories of wine (PDO, PGI and wines without geographical indication); it is necessary to put in place a mechanism for the regulation to be dynamic and to create favorable conditions for a balanced development of the sector; the Group proposes a system of “permits” for new installations of grapevine, applicable to all categories of wine. Authorizations should be free, non-transferable and valid for a maximum of three years.

The system should be managed by the Member States, taking into account the recommendations of the professional organizations representing the sector. The permit system should be accompanied by a safeguard mechanism at European level, which sets an annual rate of new plants, with the possibility for States to establish a lower value on the basis of objective criteria. When the sum of permit applications is less than the national thresholds, all authorizations should be granted. In the case of an excess of questions, the criteria for the award, should be established at European level and possibly supplemented by national criteria

The system should be applied for six years. There should also be transitional measures. The conclusions of the group, accompanied by a report will now be submitted to the Council and the European Parliament, engaged in the debate on the reform of the CAP.

Henry Borzi