by Hervé Lalau
Most of the EU countries oppose the proposed wine market organisation reform presented by Mariann Fischer Boel, the EU's Minister for Agriculture
But this is barely the only common element between them. Putting aside the non producing countries, whose sole interest in the matter is to ensure that less subsidies go to wine, the rest of the Union is clearly divided.
Even the proposed interdiction of sugar addition, a measure that seems sound enough in terms of quality, consumer protection and volume control, and should thus be unanimously welcomed, is rejected by the French.
This reaction bodes ill for future negotiations. As a first reunion was held in Brussels on July 16 to prepare these, the Portuguese minister for Agriculture, Jaime Silva, who will preside at the talks, spoke of "difficult points". His Austrian counterpart Jozef Pröll also talked of "a very hard task". As the European governments look to preserve their national wine sector, the overarching common interest seems absent.
One thing only is certain: the days when the EU was capable of financing a huge overproduction of wine are over. The different European wine subsidies add up to €1.3 billion. Fischer Boel clearly thinks it is high time to spend the money more efficiently, so that the European wine sector can regain some competitiveness on the international markets. As this surely means eliminating many lame (and state-overfed) ducks.
