ROME - Immediate opening of a European crisis distillation of 10 million hectoliters and a specific budget of 350 million euros, to respond concretely to the wine sector hit hard by the pandemic. In Brussels, the cooperative wine organizations of France, Italy and Spain, which account for half of the European wine production, almost 75 million hectoliters per year, urge the Commission to act before this crisis caused by the pandemic irreversibly damage the sector.
In a letter sent to the Community institutions, the three organizations also ask that the distillation measure "be European, at a rate of 35 euros per hectoliters and with the possibility that the States increase the Community quota to reach specific prices in the different producing countries of the Union". And yet to provide for a private storage measure for high-end wines, the marketing of which may be postponed.
"These are measures that must be financed from a European budget - specify the three organizations - and not from the budgets of the national program of support for the wine sector". "Since the beginning of the crisis - the letter says - the wine sector has been particularly affected by the slowdown in exports, the closure of bars, hotels and restaurants as well as tourism activities; volumes not sold in these months that could weigh on the next collected due to the lack of storage capacity in the cellars ".