The planting rights in the EU were supposed to disappear. The decision was taken. And then it would have been possible for wine growers to plant more grapes if they thought they could sell more wine.
The end of the planting rights would give the slow moving European wine industry a dynamic injection. But in the last minute the big wine producing countries got cold feet. And decided that they wanted to keep status quo after all.
In June an EU decision was taken to maintain planting rights as they have been since the 1960s with only a few small changes.
Europe’s vine acreage is shrinking; that of the rest of the world is increasing. Is this really the right policy for the EU?
Read more about the planting rights agreement
