Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-12-11-Speech-2-015"
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"en.20071211.7.2-015"2
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"Mr President, thank you for giving me this opportunity to make a few comments about the reform of our wine sector.
I would like to offer my particular thanks to the rapporteur, Mr Castiglione, for his remarkable hard work in bringing this draft together. Parliament has made a valuable contribution to a debate which, I must say, has at certain times been very emotionally charged. I am ready to follow your suggestions in a number of areas, at least to some extent. For example, with regard to the grubbing-up scheme, I see some advantages in reducing the five years to three years as suggested in the report. I have also listened to your concerns about channelling some spending on wine through the rural development budget. But let me remind you that all the money from the wine budget will be allocated specifically for the wine regions. Nevertheless, I will be willing to propose a lower transfer of spending into the rural development budget.
There are three big issues where the Commission, the Presidency and most Member States still have to find a consensus in the final sprint to get reform finalised this month. The first issue is the national envelopes. There was always going to be a debate about exactly what measures should be allowed in this envelope, that is to say, which menu we should put into the envelope. I am prepared to be a bit flexible here. For example, I am open to putting into the envelope certain ideas concerning innovation and the restructuring of wine sellers, but I think we still need to keep a clear demarcation line between what is possible within the national envelopes and what is possible within rural development policy, to avoid a situation where you can actually finance an investment from both sides, what is called the ‘
’.
On the other hand, the national envelopes are no place for permanent crisis distillation measures. Support for crisis distillation holds back competitiveness and we must abolish it completely and not try to reintroduce it through the back door. Also there is no possibility of reopening a general discussion on how large the envelopes of the different Member States should be. If we reopen this debate – a Pandora’s box – I can guarantee that there would be no agreement at the end of this year. I can foresee a very long and very difficult discussion if this is going to take place.
The second big issue is capitalisation. There has been a huge row about this and I have not simply blocked my ears to this discussion. Nevertheless, the status quo does hold a genuine problem to be solved. Aid for enrichment with must cannot continue at the same level in this manner. It is an old-fashioned, inefficient, ineffective, costly and trade-distorting support and, this being said, I clearly understand the importance of keeping the balance between enrichment with sugar and must in order to arrive at a compromise supported by the wine producers in both the southern and northern parts of Europe. We will find a way through this. I have listened to the broad call for continuing to allow enrichment with sugar, but – let us be clear – I am not inclined to accept the status quo, so any compromise would imply new conditions.
The third big issue is the discussion on the end of the planting rights system. I am listening to arguments about when the system could come to an end, but we cannot afford to kick the whole idea into the long grass. The wine sector clearly needs more freedom to respond to demand as soon as possible, so my suggestion of prolonging the system of planting rights until the end of 2013 was based on the clear idea of a two-stage approach to balancing the sector – first grubbing-up to bring down the production, and then liberalisation to give the successful producers the freedom to expand. I have listened to the comments from the sector but one thing is clear – the final date for the planting rights system is indispensable. What that exact date will be, will be part of the final compromise.
So overall, I have been listening to arguments from all the different sides, including all the arguments from the European Parliament, but one iron fact has not changed: our wine sector still needs reform if we want to keep it at the front of the pack. We have to seize the chance now and agree on a real reform. Carrying out reform will mean that we have to invest effort, but I am quite sure that we will get a good return. The cost of inaction is too high for us to accept, and I hope that we can agree on this point."@en1
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"double guichet"1
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