PRESS RELEASE
Brussels, October 21st 2020 – The European Parliament voted in favor ofa policy with common agricultural, environmental and social ambitions for all the territories of the European Union,a policy to reconcile the economy and the environment, (relying in particular on innovation, digital and precision agriculture) both in the first and the second pillar, a transparent policy in its management of European funds and able to demonstrate its effectiveness and measure the its results.This EP’s position answers to the main concerns of AREV.
More specifically, for wine sector, AREV welcomes the extension of the wine planting authorizations to 2050 as AREV resquested and worked with MEPs in 2018 as soon as the EC proposals were tabled. This measure is very positive and allows a long-term perspective to the wine sector.
Now, AREV considers essential to pay a special attention on how this system will opérate in order to guarantee a long-term balance of European wine sector which is essential to the revival of a sector strongly hit in the last period.
On the way the CAP is implemented, the position adopted by the European Parliament departs from the Commission’s proposals, and meets the concerns expressed by AREV.
The European Parliament intends to ensure a transparent and reliable management of CAP funds and to seek simplification for farmers and Member States (where the Commission proposed a system simpler to manage for it but more bureaucratic for farmers and payment agencies). In the Council, as the German Presidency underlined, work remains to be done to really ensure simplification and efficiency in the implementation of the CAP.
By the position it has just adopted, diametrically opposed to the guidelines for renationalizing the CAP proposed by the Commission in 2018, the European Parliament is giving meaning and realism, so that the first European policy can regain its raison d’être: a policy by which the European Union invests in its future through its agriculture and rural areas. And at the same time, it sends a clear message to the Council as well as to the Commission
It is much needed and notably for the EU wine sector which is experiencing losses as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, but also due to U.S. tariffs and, in certain export markets, by differentiated duties policies between European wines and their global competitors.
AREV asks the European Parliament to defend its position in trilogues with the Commission and the Council.
AREV notes positively as well that the Agriculture Council in its negotiating mandate approved the extension of wine planting rights until 2040 with a mid-term review by the Commission.