Grubbing-up of vineyards: yes conditioned by the EU

Conditional yes to the grubbing-up of vineyards: only with national funds and excluding plantings in areas where they have a landscape-environmental value, where the vineyard provides the main source of income for the rural population. Thus excluding the use of Community funds from the NSP (national support plan) for this new tranche of "scrapping" of EU vineyards. The European budget dedicated to the competitiveness of wine and in particular to the promotion of consumption on foreign markets (a measure already threatened with cuts on several occasions) are safeguarded. And even more flexibility in the use of the same promotion funds and, last but not least, a better regulatory definition for new wines (dealcolates) to facilitate their marketing and simplifications on digital labelling.

These are the "recommendations" included in the draft of the European Commission's High Level Group on the Future of Wine in the EU and which go for the most part in the direction desired and supported by the Italian Wine Union (UIV). This was emphasised by the Italian wine sector organisation itself following the third meeting of the High Level Group that took place a few days ago in Brussels. It should be noted that the final document of the Group will be released on 16 December.

On the subject of grubbing-up, a measure requested by some EU production areas in difficulty due to the slowdown in consumption, especially of red still wines, according to the draft, the High Level Group recommends "addressing situations of structural oversupply with national funding". In addition, as requested by Italian producers, it is recommended that "vineyards with a high landscape value, such as slopes, terraces, varieties with genetic value or in areas with environmental value or where viticulture is central and which are at risk of depopulation" be excluded from scrapping.

A position that, according to the Italian Wine Union, would preserve the 'package' of specific funds for 'active measures', such as promotion, which the sector, among other things, needs to face the challenge of changes in consumption and market uncertainties.

According to UIV, it is also crucial that the document maintains the focus on the competitiveness of the sector, that certain flexibilities are introduced on the management of potential and authorisations for new plants, and that, as proposed by Masaf, the possibility is introduced for the first time for countries to reuse any savings on National Support Plan (NSP) measures within the same package of measures, thus reinvesting them in the sector.