On November 25, in Madrid, the Spanish Conference of Wine Regulatory Councils (CECRV) brought together Spanish MEPs from different political groups for a working meeting in which Spanish wine appellations of origin and political representatives exchanged information, knowledge and positions on European policy reforms affecting the wine sector as a whole and the geographical indications themselves.
On November 25, at the Casa de Galicia in Madrid, the Spanish Conference of Wine Regulatory Councils, the association that represents the wine appellations of origin, brought together Spanish MEPs from different political partiesThe event was attended by members of the two European Parliament (EP) Committees that work most directly on the wine sector in the European Parliament, the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development and the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety. They and the representatives of the wine appellations of origin were the protagonists of the meeting "wine appellations of origin before the reforms of the EU's agri-food policy"The purpose of the event was to enable the DDOOs and political representatives of our country in the European Parliament to exchange information, knowledge and positions on the European reforms that could have the greatest impact on the European Union's wine policy in the short and medium term.
Together with almost twenty wine appellations and the main representatives of CECRV and EFOW, the European Federation of Origin Wineswhich represents wine geographical indications before the EU institutions, The meeting was attended by the MEPs Dolors Monserrat, Dolors Monserrat (Group of the European People's Party)Chairwoman of the Committee on Petitions and member of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety of the European Parliament, Adrián Vázquez Lázara (Renew Europe Group, Ciudadanos)Chairman of the EP's Legal Affairs Committee, Eugenia Rodríguez Palop, (Grupo de La Izquierda, Podemos)Vice-Chairwoman of the Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality and member of the Agriculture Committee of the European Parliament, Daniel Senderos, Deputy (Socialist Group, PSOE) -Clara Aguilera, a member of the EP Agriculture Committee for the Socialists & Democrats Group, who was unable to attend, was the deputy spokesperson for the PSOE in the Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Committee of the Congress of Deputies, and Mazaly Aguilar (Group of European Conservatives and Reformists, VOX)Vice-Chairwoman of the European Parliament's Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development.
The meeting provided an opportunity to discuss three European reforms that will affect the regulation of geographical indications (already in the pipeline), the labeling of agri-food products and their promotion (the latter two are planned in the short and medium term).
CECRV and the designations of origin claimed, exposed and argued in detail their vision about them, claiming to the political representatives the need that the reform of the regulation of geographical indications serves to to improve the current regulation on the Common Organization of Agricultural Markets and not to multiply rules.The DDOOs also called for the creation, as the European Commission intends, of a new basic regulation on IIGG. The DDOOs also called for that are not delegated to the EUIPO (Intellectual Property Office of the EU) roles and responsibilities for procedures relating to geographical indications and specifications and evidenced the the proper role that appellations of origin can play as a lever for change in the area of sustainability environmental, economic and social issues. On the subject of labeling, the representatives of the quality labels clearly stated the need for to comply with the current provisions in force that on nutrition and ingredient labeling The DDOOs defended them as a decisive step by the sector to increase the level of consumer knowledge about the product and to continue contributing to reducing alcohol abuse, in compliance with the objectives set by the European Commission for the forthcoming reform of the regulation on information provided to the consumer. With regard to the promotion of EU agri-food products, the DDOOs demanded that that the wine sector be treated in the same way as other agri-food sectorsThe company has been working without discrimination or, of course, exclusion of any kind, taking into account the work that operators and geographical indications have been carrying out to become benchmarks in sustainability and to align themselves with the consumer information policies envisaged by the European Commission.
For their part, the MEPs present conveyed to the DDOOs their support for these claimsThey all, without exception, considered them to be understandable and reasonable. All of them made clear their vision of wine as an essential part of the dynamic sector, very well organized and structured and at the forefront when dealing rigorously and on the basis of self-diagnosis with debates and issues raised by the institutions, such as those indicated above. And they pointed out the particularities of the work they carry out within the commissions to which they belong, particularly in the Agriculture Commission, stating that the consensus among various political groups is very present among the Spanish representatives in the European Parliament when it comes to the wine sector, sharing the view that it is a very cross-cutting sector that contributes a lot to European agriculture and to that of our country.
In view of the risk of a significant weakening of the European Union's wine policy, which, in the opinion of the appellations of origin, is posed by the European Commission's initial proposals in the three aforementioned reforms, the CECRV was requested all its political formations to support in the European Parliament to ensure that the EU continues to have a strong and specific wine policyThe European wine sector, with the PDOOs as its driving force, has been a success story so far.
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