Agricultural prices 1998/1999: wine, common organisation of the market COM (amend. regul. 822/87/EEC)

Agricultural Prices 1998/99 - Wine (common organization of the market) In the context of Agenda 2000, the Commission is committed to presenting a new proposal for the reform of the market organisation in wine. In anticipation of this proposal the Commission proposes: (1) to modify the basic Regulation (822/87) to provide for: - the extension by one marketing year of the ban on new plantings of varieties of grapes for table wine (however, the provision allowing an overall 10 000 ha of new plantings for the 1996/97 and 1997/98 marketing years will be prolonged n 1998/99, within the same global limit); - the fixing at a lower level of the total acidity content of table wines, to take account of developments in this field; (2) the extension of certain related measures and derogations, namely: - the possibility for the Commission to adopt the necessary measures in order to effectively apply compulsory distillation (management committee procedure); - the derogation for Greece for a specific application of the regime for compulsory distillation; - flexibility (introduced in 1996) available to Member States in modulating (by way of replacement measures) the contributions of sub-regions to the regional allocation of quantities for compulsory distillation; - the possibility for Spain to continue mixing red and whine wine (mescla); - the possibility to retain a portion of the aid for the must used for the production of juices for the promotion of grape juice. - the obligation to present a report on the sulphur dioxide content of wines. �