FOREWORD—what this
report is about
In our interim report (HL Paper 141 published on
23 July 2007) we set out our emerging conclusions on the European
Commission's proposals for reform of the EU wine sector. We indicated
there that we would present our final report after the summer
recess and that this would confirm or modify our preliminary conclusions
and at the same time explore some of the underlying issues in
the EU wine industry.
Since we reported in July, we have heard the views
of HM Government on the adequacy of the Commission's proposals.
The evidence given to us by the Minister, Lord Rooker, is published
with this report. Having heard the Government's view, we are able
to confirm the overall position which we adopted three months
ago—namely, that we regard the Commission's proposals as
constituting an important step in the direction of setting the
EU wine industry onto a sounder basis. While this is our view
of the reform package as a whole, we have serious reservations
about two specific proposals within it—to extend the current
ban on new plantings from 2010 until 2013 and to prohibit the
use of sucrose in wine making. In Chapter One of this report we
set out the Government's views and present our final conclusions
on the Commission's Proposal.
In Chapter Two we turn our attention to what we see
as the underlying weaknesses of the present system and the changes,
not so much in regulation as in mind-set, which need to take place
if the Commission's proposals are to bear fruit and set the EU
wine industry on course for a successful future. We deal with
attitudes to wine production, which appear to be too oriented
towards the needs of producers and not enough towards those of
consumers; with changes in public attitudes to wine, which we
believe the EU wine industry has been slow to recognise; with
the different structure and modus operandi of the New World
wine industries which have enabled them to achieve an increasing
share of the EU wine market; with attitudes to wine-making; and
with the need for more vertical integration of the industry, from
wine growing, through production, to marketing. It is clear to
us that significant changes in all these areas are needed and
that, unless such change takes place, the legislative reforms
which the Commission has proposed will have only limited effect.
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