by Dr. Hermann Pilz and Richard Grosche
Norbert Weber, the president of the German Winegrowers Association, remains concerned that the reforms necessary in the European Union s wine market have been postponed until this summer. As the European foreign trade balance spirals downward, he maintains .
that the European wine budget is being wasted on subsidies rather than investing in the future. Structural changes in production, distribution and communication are overdue. It should be the aim of the reform, he continues, to provide European wine producers with structures to compete with overseas brands. Our colleagues from southern Europe have missed the boat in their support of further distillation. The German Winegrowers Association supports the idea of investing the 500 to 700 million Euros spent annually on the distillation of table wine from southern Europe in market measures that would be controlled through national plans. Those programmes should be approved by Brussels, but implemented under the supervision and responsibility of the individual member states and their wine regions.
In addition to those monies, Europe will spend 450 million Euros this year to restructure vineyards in order to bring supply into line with demand. Spain with 159.5, France with 111.0 and Italy with 99.8 million Euros take home the lion s share of those monies, but have shown little inclination to grubbing up unwanted vineyards. This may be necessary short term, but has nothing to do with quality, distribution or communication, he adds.
