Labels on wine bottles, a soft reform from the EU
QR codes and pictograms under consideration by the EU Parliament should avoid the alarmist signs introduced in Ireland that do not distinguish between abuse and moderate consumption
3' min read
3' min read
A pictogram will save us. In the past few days, the EU Agriculture Commissioner has presented his 'wine package', which now has to be scrutinised by the EU Parliament and the Council of Ministers.
The measure has introduced some important simplifications in the sector's regulations, clarifying a key principle: anti-crisis measures to contain production (from the 'scrapping' of vineyards or uprooting to the distillation of surpluses) can be adopted by Member States but must be financed only with national resources, while Brussels will continue to support (within the framework of the CMO wine) actions to foster the competitiveness of companies in the sector: from the restructuring of vineyards to investments in wineries and promotion on foreign markets.
The latter is a measure that is increasingly strategic and, precisely for this reason, will be able to benefit from some important flexibility introduced by Brussels.
In particular, for these measures the percentage of Community co-financing will rise from the current 40%, with differentiated percentages according to the different types of intervention, and will reach up to 80% of the investment in the case of actions carried out in the vineyard and in the cellar to combat climate change.
But that is not all. The new regulation has also introduced some more detailed definitions regarding the segment of dealcoholised wines (zero alcohol or low alcohol), a new slice of supply that looks very promising in particular on some markets and whose production Brussels had already authorised in Europe with a 2017 regulation.
But - above all - the new EU measure has dictated new labelling rules including the QR Code tool. "This is a very important innovation, the real scope of which has not yet been grasped," they explain in Brussels. "Firstly, it has been clarified that it will not be possible to add new terms to the mandatory information on the label. And that, therefore, these additional elements should be referred to the QR Code. The first advantage is that this avoids the introduction of new terms that would then have to be translated into all EU languages. But above all, we are exploring all the new possibilities that will be provided by this tool'.
