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

In adopting the report by Mr Edouard des PLACES (I-EDN, F) the European Parliament tabled only a few amendments to the Commission's proposals for the price of agricultural products (1998-1999). It calls for an adjustment coefficient for all CMOs in order to compensate for the possible disappearance of the green rate on 1 January 1999 for the Member States participating in the single currency. With regard to the market in wine, the European Parliament calls for the granting of new planting rights for quality wines produced in certain regions (VQPRD) and for table wines up to an overall limit of 24 000 hectares for new plantings to be made during the 1998/1999 and 1999/2000 wine years. It also calls for an increase in the duration of planting rights from 8 to 12 years. Member States should, under certain conditions, be able to authorize the planting of new vineyards before proceeding with the grubbing up of equivalent areas of existing vineyards. The grubbing up of vineyards must take place during the marketing year preceding the one in which the new vineyards become productive and, in any event, by the third marketing year at the latest. For the wine year 1998/99, table wines produced in Austria, Greece, France, Italy, Portugal and in the Spanish parts of winegrowing region C which are sold on the markets of these countries must have a total acidity content expressed as tartaric acid of not less than 3.5 g per litre.�