Common organisation of agricultural markets CMO: incorporation of the wine sector into the single CMO Regulation

PURPOSE: to incorporate the wine sector, in full, into Regulation (EC) No 1234/2007 establishing a common organisation of agricultural markets and on specific provisions for certain agricultural products ("single CMO Regulation");

PROPOSED ACT: Council Regulation.

BACKGROUND: to recall, in 2007 the Council adopted Council Regulation (EC) No 1234/2007 on the establishment of a common organisation of agricultural markets and on specific provisions for certain agricultural products – the Single CMO Regulation. (See CNS/2006/0269). One of the single CMO Regulation’s main objectives is to simplify the Common Agricultural Policy by replacing all of the Regulations adopted by the Council since the introduction of CAP, into one single legal act.

Simplification of CAP secondary legislation does not question policy decisions that have been taken in respect to the CAP and it does not envisage the introduction of any new instruments or measures. Thus, the CMO Regulation reflects the CAP up to the point at which the CMO Regulation was adopted.

Since the adoption of the single SMO Regulation the Council approved legislation reforming the Community’s wine market. (Council Regulation (EC) No 479/2008 (see CNS/2007/0138).

CONTENT: the purpose of this proposal is to incorporate the wine sector, in full, into the single CMO Regulation. The incorporation of these provisions into the single CMO Regulation will follow the same approach, namely not to call into question any policy decisions taken when those provisions were adopted by the Council. The Commission is also proposing that the wine sector should be excluded from the scope of Regulation (EC) No 1184/2006 applying certain rules of competition to the production of, and trade in, agricultural products. This is because the single CMO Regulation already incorporates provisions concerning the applicability of competition rules under the Treaty.

On a final point and in order not to interfere with the ongoing 2008/2009 marketing year for wine, the proposed amendments should apply as of the start of the next marketing year for wine – i.e. as of 1 August 2009.