Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-09-27-Speech-2-049"
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"en.20050927.5.2-049"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, if I were to be banished to a desert island, in the farthest ocean, which would be the Pacific, and someone were to ask me which European agricultural products I would like to take with me, I would say, apart from bread, two bottles. One of those bottles would contain wine, and the other olive oil. And since I am from La Rioja, the wine would naturally be a Rioja, which has an international reputation and whose renown and prestige are due to an ancient wine-making culture.
Since before the Roman invasion, vines were being cultivated in La Rioja and wine was being produced. Our wine is therefore produced by means of extremely ancient production methods which guarantee the high quality of the product.
I therefore believe that the Agreement reached with the United States could lead to a profound change to our wine-making culture, which would not always work to our advantage, because, fortunately or unfortunately, the commercial success of our wines has always been linked to a production method that conforms rigorously to the most purist definitions of the wine.
The definitive authorisation of the import of wines treated by means of dubious wine-making practices that are very different to ours could jeopardise our own wine-making culture, upon which – I would insist – the commercial success of our products has always been based.
How long can the European Union go on prohibiting the use of flakes in the maturing of wine or the addition of water, if we are allowing wines produced by means of these practices to be imported?
It is clear that the chapter on wine-making processes will be one of the sticking points to which particular attention will be paid in the forthcoming reform of the COM in wine, because the agreement that the European Commission has just reached with the United States will, I fear, have repercussions which will go beyond trade with that country.
My region, La Rioja, is lucky enough to benefit from good protection in the United States’ market, but the same cannot be said for other Community designations such as Burgundy, Port and Sherry and Málaga wine, which are still considered by that country to be ‘semi-generic’. The agreement reached does not contain a firm commitment from the United States to cease misappropriating these descriptions.
I would therefore like us to call upon the Commission to include the creation of an international register of geographical indications and designations of origin amongst the main priorities of the negotiations in the World Trade Organisation. The current negotiations in the World Trade Organisation offer a golden opportunity which we must not waste.
The Commission should also urge the United States, on a bilateral basis, to stop using names protected in the European Union within the maximum period of two years mentioned in the recent wine Agreement."@en1
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