The European Commission adopts trade measures to support EU winegrowers

The European Commission has taken exceptional measures to address the current imbalances in the wine market in various regions of the EU. Within the framework of national wine support programmes, Member States will now be able to include crisis distillation to remove excess wine from the market. The application of wine support programs is also made more flexible, allowing more flexibility for the green harvest this summer and increasing the percentage of EU co-financing of measures related to restructuring, green harvesting, promotion and investment . The wine sector is being affected by lower consumption due to ongoing food and beverage price inflation, which, coupled with a good 2022 harvest and the consequent consequences of market difficulties during the pandemic, has caused a build-up of stocks. Community wine production increased by 4% this year compared to the previous one, while initial stocks were 2% higher than the average of the last 5 years. The decrease in wine ...