Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-06-15-Speech-4-175"
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"en.20060615.27.4-175"2
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"Mr President, at this time when the Commission has to put the finishing touches to its reform of the COM in wine, the debate being held in Parliament today is closely related to the competitiveness of European viticulture compared to that of third countries. The Commission says that it wants its reform to promote this competitiveness.
The use of oak shavings in the production of wines is a practice permitted by the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV). The conditions for use of this practice are nevertheless awaiting approval by the Wine Management Committee. There is so little protection for the wine sector these days that it has become necessary to reconcile the preservation of traditional practices, such as ageing in barrels, with the possibility for European wine-growers, should they decide to do so, to compete under equal conditions with third-country producers, all while offering maximum guarantees of transparency and information for the consumer, of course.
In our view, this practice should be applied to wines subject to ageing or carrying traditional mentions such as 'Crianza', 'Reserva' or 'Gran Reserva'. The label is there precisely to prevent confusion amongst consumers, clearly indicating whether such a practice has been carried out or not, for example by reserving the term ‘oak’ for traditional ageing in barrels.
Furthermore, the basic Regulation for this COM allows Member States, in relation to wine-making practices and treatments, to impose stricter national conditions in order to ensure that the characteristics of their quality wines are maintained. In the case of my country, the Supervisory Councils are the main guardians of the quality of Spanish wines.
At the moment, however, the Commission is responsible for establishing the conditions for use of this practice at Community level. We would therefore ask you to do so with the necessary transparency, in order to prevent any confusion for the consumer and to guarantee that the same measures are applied to imports from third countries.
We would also like the Commission to explain to us why it is fragmenting the debate on wine-making practices, when they should be dealt with jointly. Furthermore, in autumn 2005, document COM(2005) 395 was communicated to us with a series of technical amendments to the basic Regulation: replacement of the distillation of sub-products of wine production by its withdrawal in Slovenia and Slovakia, modification of the classification of cultivated areas in Poland or new mentions for labelling.
These amendments did not include the addition of oak shavings, however. I do not believe that this is a translation problem, since neither the French version nor the Spanish version introduced such a change. If that had been the case, the Commission on Agriculture and Rural Development may not have chosen to deal with this issue by means of the simplified procedure.
Can the Commission tell us, therefore, when it decided to introduce this new element and why it has not waited for the reform of the COM in order to do so."@en1
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