Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-12-11-Speech-2-016"
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"en.20071211.7.2-016"2
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"Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I am grateful to the Commissioner for her cooperation with Parliament during this lengthy process. I also thank her for her appreciation of the European Parliament’s work, a significant and interesting job of work involving a major input from the Committee on Agriculture, but also from the entire House and all colleagues. Thank you, Commissioner, for having proposed a very ambitious reform, one whose aims we cannot fail to endorse.
Unlike our original proposal, the report also strives to meet wine-growers’ need for future certainty. Given this need for certainty, we cannot decide to liberalise planting rights as of now, before seeing whether – and above all how well – the new system functions.
That is why the report provides for planting rights to be preserved at least until 2013 and calls on the Commission to present an impact assessment on the first phase of the reform, so as to be able to decide what to do next in full knowledge of the facts. It should of course be borne in mind that decisions taken in areas with geographical indications must be taken with due regard for – and under the supervision of – those who have invested their capital and labour in these projects. If it then proves that the system hampers the development of those who are competitive, we can increase circulation at Community level and ensure that, where reserves exist, they are properly used.
I have one final remark, Commissioner: there can be no denying that the debate has been dominated by the question of sugaring. Coming as I do from a country like Italy where the use of sucrose is prohibited, and especially coming from Sicily where must is produced, no one can understand better than I do the Commissioner's disappointment on this issue. Nevertheless, we are talking about the need to give European wines a new lease of life and make them competitive, equipping them to compete in the marketplace.
This is our goal, and in order to attain it we have attempted to look beyond national differences. Thank you, Commissioner, for your cooperation and above all for your appreciation of the European Parliament’s work. We have put into this reform...
Consumption is falling and imports are rising, all of which means that a radical form is vital. Our wine-growing sector needs a fresh start: new life blood, new energy and new proposals. You are right when you say that if we wish to remain competitive, if we wish to remain world leaders in the sector, we need to invest in the wine sector. We have to keep an eye on the market, we have to produce for the market, and we have to penetrate the market with top-quality products.
For this reason, Commissioner, I have attempted – along with my colleagues in the Committee on Agriculture and the European Parliament, whom I would thank once again – to envisage in the report a comprehensive, coherent reform which is above all transparent. The system must be capable of meeting our producers’ needs, of supplying the wherewithal for them to be competitive and successful.
All in all, we have sought to draw up a text providing suitable responses to common requirements, but also to respect, stimulate and in some case settle differences between the different national settings. I have just one preliminary remark: we need a radical change of mind-set, of production strategy. We must break away from the logic of quantity and instead pursue quality production – excellence – in a way that celebrates the specific national, regional and local characteristics of European wine-growing.
That is why, Commissioner, we agree to the abolition of market mechanisms which have proved inefficient, which are ineffective and have merely added to surplus, poor-quality production. I would give only one example: crisis distillation, which has now become a routine structural measure and is no longer a means of responding to emergency situations. EUR 500 million per year for distillation had become untenable. We therefore support a more efficient use of economic resources: for national development programmes and for the implementation of measures better tailored to the specific needs of each producer country.
For this reason, Commissioner, we saw fit in the report to extend the list of available measures: we decided to include restructuring of the sector, research, innovation and qualitative improvements. All these actions will encourage that entrepreneurial creativity so badly needed by our wines. It is crucial in the same vein to encourage promotion campaigns, not only on international markets but also on domestic markets. We have said so before, and this fact also emerged from the analysis conducted by the Committee on Agriculture.
It is absurd to think we can compete beyond our borders if we cannot be at the front of the pack at home, if we cannot convince our fellow citizens of the quality of the wines we produce. That is why the report advocates a harmonised system of protection for designations of origin and geographical indications, clear and transparent labelling, and positively identified oenological practices. Only then will consumers, who are central here, have faith in what they buy.
It is thus essential, Commissioner, for designations of origin and geographical indications, which embody the quality of European wine-growing, to be well protected. Protection means the obligation to produce within the designated area, but it also means confining the reference on the label to the vintage year exclusively to wines with a designation of origin or a geographical indication. These are the only wines subjected to ongoing checks, and hence the only ones for which it is possible to ensure the truthfulness of the information given; otherwise producers of quality wines would be at a disadvantage and consumers would be misled.
With the same logic in mind, and for the sake of coherence, the report supports the proposal for a voluntary grubbing-up scheme with payment of a premium, so that those wishing to leave the market can do so with dignity. Furthermore, I cannot refrain from expressing my satisfaction that the Commissioner has just agreed to my idea of reducing the five years to three. It seems in fact that the number of hectares eligible for grubbing-up has fallen from 200 000 to 175 000."@en1
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