EU seeks to bring sparkle back to struggling wine sector

The EU moved Friday to help its wine sector face a variety of  challenges, proposing to support the marketing of alcohol-free drinks, boosting tourism to Europe's picturesque vineyards and offering extra aid to adapt to climate change.

The plans come as winegrowers brace for early impact from the trade war shaping up between the EU and the United States, after President Donald Trump threatened 200 percent tariffs on European alcoholic beverages.

Falling demand has already plunged the sector into "a very difficult situation, particularly for red wine in certain regions of southern Europe", a senior EU official said.

Europe accounts for 60 percent of the world's production but young people in the bloc are drinking less as they seek healthier lifestyles.

The EU hopes to promote wine with lower alcohol content to offset these changing habits by creating common definitions across the 27 member states.

"We need to follow consumer demand," EU agriculture commissioner Christophe Hansen told AFP.

"We can't just carry on producing something we've always done like this."

The move is part of a raft of new proposals Hansen said would "help stabilise the market".

The European Commission has proposed three common labels: drinks containing up to 0.5 percent of alcohol can be labelled "alcohol-free" and "0.0 percent" if the level is 0.05 percent or below.

A third label, "alcohol-light", will be for wines with an alcohol content above 0.5 percent but significantly lower than conventional wines.

Too early to toast?  

The EU also wants to encourage more visits to Europe's luscious vineyards, many of them bathed in Mediterranean sun, and promised to provide help to increase tourism.

And the plans would empower member states to take steps such as uprooting vines to prevent surplus production and extending permits for replanting from three to eight years to give producers more time to evaluate demand.

The EU will also provide support to tackle drought, extreme weather conditions and plant diseases hurting production.

Brussels wants to let the sector access more EU money to adapt vineyards to climate change, raising the ceiling on public assistance from 50 to 80 percent.

The plans, known as the "wine package", still need approval from the European Parliament and EU states, and are set to come into force in late 2025 or early 2026.

Agricultural groups welcomed the "solid" measures but urged more funding.

"The European Commission has delivered on its promises," pan-European farmers' group Copa-Cogeca said, but added: "Without an adequate financial framework that allows for flexible use of sectoral resources, the impact of these measures will be limited".