by Hervé Lalau and Bernard Burtschy
During her recent visit to Bordeaux, the European Commissioner for Agriculture Mariann Fischer Boel declared that "Wine has a future. I believe in a competitive European viticulture". Although this was a message much appreciated by the winemakers present, the Danish Commissioner also spoke of the reform necessary in Europe s wine policy: "Out of a total budget of 1.3 billion Euro, we are spending 500 million on distillation. Things cannot go on like this. Be that as it may, the measures that the EU suggests to solve the overproduction problem - such as massive uprooting of vines, free right of plantation, new winemaking techniques and the end of the distillation financing - scare the rank and file, in Bordeaux and beyond. The project will be amended a little, of course, to soothe winegrowers, but the problem remains: while the competition from New World wines grows fiercer on major export markets, consumers in Europe\'s major producing countries drink less. Ms. Fischer Boel knows it, and her reference to a "competitive European viticulture" implies that Europe must to improve its competitiveness. Not all European winegrowers will survive the process.
