Brussels, 8 July 2020
On the occasion of the EFOW Presidents’ meeting, wine appellations took stock of the COVID-19 crisis and the regulatory measures put in place by the European Commission. In all the wine producing countries, the appellation sector continues to suffer significant losses due to the disruption of the Horeca and tourism. Furthermore, there are clear losses with regard to wine exports due to both the COVID-19 and retorsion measures adopted by the US against GI wines.
EFOW’s presidents welcome the important flexibilities that have been introduced for the wine sector at the national and European levels but consider that the crisis is far from over. We will have to wait for the evolution of the pandemic and the harvest to have a more accurate assessment. They call on the European institutions to be ready in the fall to continue to help operators face this unprecedented crisis.
EFOW’s president, Mr. Bernard Farges, thanked on behalf of his colleagues “MEPs sitting in the European Parliament’s Agriculture Committee and the members of the Wine Intergroup for their tireless defence of the sector’s interests. This extraordinary support has enabled us to have new measures that will greatly help us in the coming weeks“.
He also believes that “the Commission has taken into account some of our expectations. We expect that it will continue to work with the wine sector to identify the measures that will allow for a swift and positive stabilisation. Today we have temporary measures which may have to be extended to help operators. Together we have to draw up a recovery plan which provides not only for funding commensurate with the challenges we are facing but also for strong promotion of appellations and tools to ensure the sustainable development of our wine-growing regions“.