In a depressingly familiar story, the European Union, just as they did last year, has decided to give France and other wine producing countries money to turn their excess wine into unusable, industrial alcohol.
Thanks to the decision France will get money to distill 150 million litres of quality wine and 150 million litres of table wine; Italy 10 million and 250 millions litres, respectively. It could have been worse for EU taxpayers. France did ask for 200 million litre’s worth.
That will, of course, be cold comfort for EU taxpayers, particularly when they find out that the EU’s so-called “wine lake” holds about 1.5 billion litres of wine, about 4 bottles per citizen. Having already made their choice by buying more and more wine from other parts of their world, they are now being made to pay again.
But perhaps not for too much longer according to the EU’s agriculture commissioner, Mariann Fischer Boel, European agriculture commissioner. She is promising to initiate “deep-rooted reform” of the wine sector on the 22nd of June, with one proposal being to rip up around 400,000 hectares of vines.
If this measure is approved one area sure to be affected is the historic region of Languedoc Roussillon, also home to the militant CRAV (Regional Committee for Viticultural Action). Based on their history of violent reactions to competition or efforts at reform, they are unlikely to take this kind of action lying down. However, the longer the EU fiddles over painful reforms, the longer their fire will burn; all to the long-term detriment of those in the wine-producing regions of France and the EU.