Letter from the European Commission
Thank you for your e-mail of 19 December 2006
addressed to Mrs Fischer Boel, Commissioner for Agriculture and
Rural Development concerning the inquiry into the EU wine sector.
The Commissioner has asked me to reply.
I would like to compliment you on taking this
important initiative, not least because of the importance of the
UK market as an importer of Community and non-EU wines and of
the need to elucidate the dynamics of that market. Wine production
is also becoming important to some regions of the UK.
The Commission has already published substantial
documentation on its position with regard to the current situation
in the wine sector in the EU and the way forward notably in its
Communication "Towards a sustainable European wine sector"
COM(2006) 319 final of 22 June 2006 and the accompanying Impact
Assessment. In addition the Commission has prepared two working
papers "Wine—economy of the sector" and "Wine
-.common market organisation". All these documents are available
on:
http://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/capreform/wine/index en.htm.
These documents have been circulated widely
and discussed in depth in the Council, the European Parliament,
in the European Economic and Social Committee and in the Committee
of the Regions as well as by stakeholders at Community and at
national levels.
The Commission is open to any informal discussion
in Brussels with you and your colleagues and Members of the UK
House of Lords on the current situation and the future common
organisation of the market in wine.
The European Parliament is expected to adopt
its Opinion on the Commission's Communication during its Plenary
Session in February or March 2007 and following that the Commission's
legislative proposal is likely to be adopted before the Summer
break 2007.
I wish you every success with your initiative
white remaining open to informal discussion and I look forward
to your early contribution to the discussion so that it can be
taken into account.
Pour le Directeur Général empesh
L Hoelgaard
Directeur Général Adjoint
Jean-Luc DEMARTY
Director-General
| 
