CEVI calls on the European Commission to continue supporting Independent Winegrowers by extending its delegated acts taken to address the market disturbance in the wine sector caused by the COVID-19 pandemic after 15 October 2020, as the lack of a concrete European budget has been preventing us from implementing all the necessary measures.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the wine sector has been largely affected by the closure of bars, restaurants and hotels in Europe, as well as by difficulties to export in key markets, and asked for an urgent help to overcome this difficult situation.
Between the end of April and the beginning of July 2020, the European Commission adopted temporary delegated acts (delegated regulation 2020/592 of 30 April 2020, delegated regulation C(2020) 2908 final of 4 May 2020, delegated regulation C(2020) 4583 final of 6 July 2020, and Implementing Regulation (EU) 2020/975 of 6 July 2020) to partially address this market disturbance in our sector caused by the pandemic.
They will no longer produce any legal effect after 15 October 2020. Yet we still need them to be maintained to allow Member States to implement measures such as crisis distillation, private storage and green harvesting, amongst others key actions for our sector’s survival.
“As the pandemic continues affecting seriously our sector across Europe, its effects won’t leave after this October, unlike those of the delegated acts implemented at EU level. CEVI has been alerting many times about the necessity for these measures to keep their effects maintained after this deadline to support the sector’s recovery for the financial year 2020/2021 to come. We therefore reiterate our call on the European Commission to allow our sector to continue benefiting from those crucial measures.” CEVI’s President Thomas Montagne said after the Agriculture & Fisheries Council this Monday.