EU Rebuffs France and Italy Over Wine Distillation
Staff Writer - June 7, 2006
France and Italy, Europe's two leading wine producers, faced a rebuff from Brussels over their demands for EU subsidies to turn their surplus wine into fuel or industrial alcohol.
The European Commission announced that it would spend €131 million (check out current value in other currencies) to distill 430 million bottles, or 3,225 million hectoliters (slightly over 85 million gallons) of French wine and 371 million bottles, or 2,782 million hectoliters (around 73.5 million gallons) of Italian wine into fuel.
The measures did not satisfy the two main European wine producing countries, as France have asked for the European Union's executives to subsidize the so-called 'crisis distillation' of 2 million hectoliters (around 53 million gallons) of table wine and 2 million hectoliters of quality wine, while Italy have sought similarly to transform 3 million hectoliters (79.25 million gallons) of table wine and 100,000 hectoliters (around 2,642 million gallons) of quality wine.
However, despite recent lobbying by Dominique Bussereau, French minister of agriculture, the European Commission approved distillation of lower quantities and at lower prices than the two countries have demanded.
On the other hand, the European Commission will then spend €2.4 billion (check out current value in other currencies) digging up vineyards across the continent. In fact, the commission will propose reforms of the industry, including an attempt to improve competitiveness by paying farmers to put 400,000 hectares (around 988,422 acres) of vineyards under the plough from Rioja to the Loire Valley to Chianti.
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