PRESS RELEASE
BRUSSELS, May 12th, 2020 – The AREV is very pleased to acknowledge that the Commission has taken up most of the requests expressed in its statement of 3rd of April 2020.
The measures requested were intended to respond to the urgency of the situation caused by Covid-19.
We had asked:
- the free movement of employees,
- the extension of planting rights in 2021,
- subsidized distillation,
- the relaunch of the wine sector (wine promotion, derogation for abroad online selling to private.
individuals, aid for restructuring vineyards, increased aid for promoting our wines), AREV asks that these crisis management and recovery measures for the sector be included in the 2020 budget but also in the measures for the management of monetary funds (MFF) that will be presented on 13 May 2020.
Indeed, a good number of these measures have still not found funding and therefore remain inoperative or dependent on the willingness of Member States and their ability to mobilise national funds for their wine sector. Without an EU-wide plan and associated funding, the exit from the crisis will be longer and more chaotic.
Therefore, AREV promotes and supports the European Parliament in its request for an increase in the Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF). AREV also shares ComAgri’s firm opposition to any reduction in the CAP budget in total contradiction with the current situation.
This is why AREV urgently urges the European Commission to present a revised MFF on 13 May, including a plan to revive the economy in general and the European regional wine sectors in particular. In the context of the future CAP and European cohesion policies, the European wine-growing Regions want to stress the importance of investment and innovation, which alone can reconcile the objectives of economy and sustainability.
By way of example, the AREV recalls (Cf. PressRelease of AREV of 11th December 2019) the need to anchor precision agriculture and digital technology in the Commission’s strategies. AREV also advocates a powerful and dynamic promotion of our European wine-producing regions both on the internal market (wine tourism, GIs, etc.) and for export.
In total opposition to the emerging policies of degrowth, the AREV expects the Commission to make bold proposals to consolidate and promote one of the great riches of the European Union, that of its European wine growing regions.