Promotion of wines in audiovisual, requested by producers to increase consumption

The amendment of the European legislation regarding advertising in the audiovisual media, to allow the promotion of wines, in the context in which consumption has been decreasing since 2010, is one of the topics of debate at today's scheduled meeting of the Working Group for the Union's wine sector European, according to the website Euractiv.com.

Inflation for producers and consumers and the unpredictability of harvests due to adverse weather conditions are putting the wine market to the test as it faces a long-term decline in wine consumption in the European Union, the source said. According to data from the European Commission, wine consumption fell by 24% between 2010 and 2020 and the estimate is that the average decrease will be 0.2% annually between 2020 and 2031. These aspects are important for the European Union, given that the market in this sector amounts to 100.3 billion euros, which means 0.8% of the Gross Domestic Product of the community block.

That is why the High-level Group for the EU wine sector meets today with the task of drawing up a diagnosis of the crises facing the sector and initiating the change of the European legislative framework. Among the participants of the meeting are various organizations from the wine sector, such as AREV, CEEV, CopaCogeca, EFOW, CEVI, ViaCampesina and IFOAM, but also representatives of the member states of the European Union.

Two more meetings will follow in October and November, before the policy recommendations will be presented in December to the European Commission, which will include them in the legislative proposals it will submit to the European Parliament in the summer of 2025, in the context of the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy.

Right-wing MEPs are calling for a return to a wine promotion policy to boost the domestic market and consumption, citing limits on alcohol advertising imposed by the European Audiovisual Media Services (AVMS) directive. The EPP is calling for the suspension of legislation on health warning labels on alcohol consumption, which were introduced in Ireland in January 2023. However, part of the European Parliament may not agree to the changes requested by producers from the wine sector, because at the beginning of last year the European deputies undertook to label the consumption of alcohol as harmful according to the European Action Plan to fight cancer, the quoted source also notes.

The EU is the world's leading producer, consumer and exporter of wine. After two decades of growing exports - which have tripled in value - the group is meeting amid major cyclical and structural crises for the sector. While the group's work will contribute to the reform of the CAP after 2027, it will need to "redirect aid, targeting it more towards jobs and more sustainable production methods". Whereas the next CAP should not add direct aid to winegrowers - which does not exist today - but guarantee "improved tools for the authorization of planting, with assurance systems closer to the realities on the ground".

For the Commission, the authorization of planting and replanting and encouraging the production of low-alcohol wines are among the measures that have allowed the consolidation of the sector in recent years.