The president of the Assembly of European Wine-growing Regions (AREV) stressed that he would “fight the battle” to ensure that “there is some kind of determination” in this respect, and appealed that “in this time of emergency, attention should not be distracted and that there should be a response from the European Union”.
The President of the Assembly of European Wine Regions (AREV), Emiliano García-Page, announced yesterday, during an event organised by the Government of Castilla-La Mancha, of which he is the head, that he has “urgently” asked the 27 European Union Ministers of Agriculture to activate additional and specific funds for the wine sector. In this way, through a letter, García-Page has asked for the support of the Member States “so that decisions can be taken to support the wine sector”, affected by the consequences of the pandemic, the United States’ tariffs and, ultimately, by an arctic cold snap that has hit a large part of the continental vineyards.
It should be noted that at the last meeting of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council (AGRIFISH) held at the end of March, at which the Spanish Minister of Agriculture, Luis Planas Puchades, made a request for extraordinary and additional financial support to recover the European wine sector, the European Commission expressed its willingness to analyse the Spanish proposal at the next Council of EU Agriculture Ministers, backed by 15 member states (Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Malta, Czech Republic, and Romania), which account for more than 96% of total EU wine production in the 2020/2021 harvest, according to data published by DG AGRI[1].
In this context, and concerning to this request and the measures to be discussed by the heads of Agriculture of the Member States at the next meeting of the Agriculture and Fisheries Council (AGRIFISH), to be held on 26 and 27 April, the President of the AREV has stressed that he “will fight the battle” so that “there is some kind of determination” in this regard while appealing that “in this time of emergency, attention should not be distracted and there can be a response from the European Union”, he added.
[1] According to data published as of 15 April 2021 by DG AGRI https://agridata.ec.europa.eu/extensions/DashboardWine/WineProduction.html