The Political Economy of European Wine Regulations

Abstract

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. The EU wine market is heavily regulated. Despite the many distortions in the wine market as a consequence, reforming the regulations has proven difficult. This paper analyses the political economy mechanism that created the existing set of wine regulations. We document the historical origins of the regulations and relate these to political pressures that resulted from international integration, technological innovations and economic developments. Terms of use: Documents in EconStor may

Implementation of green harvesting in the Sicilian wine industry: Effects on the cooperative system

“…In particular, the European Union (EU) wine industry, despite a wealth of complex regulations, has suffered in the recent past from structural imbalances caused by the surplus wine production, the concurrent steady reduction in wine consumption, the slower growth in EU exports and the growing competition from new world wines (European Commission, 2006a, 2007aČačić et al, 2012;Meloni and Swinnen, 2013;Gori and Alampi Sottini, 2014). To cope with these issues a new Common Market Organisation (CMO) for wine has been launched in 2008 and then reviewed within the general reform of the CAP 2014-2020.…”

The effect of wine policy on the emerging cold-hardy wine industry in the northern U.S. states

“…For example, Wiseman and Ellig (2007) studied the impact of the repeal of the prohibition of out-of-state direct shipment of wine in the state of Virginia and found that the repeal narrowed the retail price gap between online and brick-and-mortar businesses by 40%, which was considered an improvement in market efficiency that benefited both consumers and producers. Meloni and Swinnen (2013), in their investigation of the historical origins of current wine regulations in the European Union, note how hybrid vines were unable to prosper in France, on account of a politicallycharged implementation of a restrictive policy directed at production of emerging hybrids. 2 A number of studies have examined the importance of statelevel policy for an emerging industry.…”

“…The primary goal of conducting the survey was to study economic impact of the industry in each of the participating states and asks sales-related and production-related questions which often are not divulged by a privately held company. It The appellation producers from Bordeaux, Champagne, or Burgundy regions exerted a strong influence over the government policy-making process, and to them is attributed the enactment of restrictive policies against emerging hybrid producers (Meloni and Swinnen, 2013). was hoped that given the anonymity of a survey sensitive data could be obtained.…”

An Industrial Ecology approach to solve wine surpluses problem: the case study of an Italian winery

“…Worldwide, the OIV observes a gap between production and consumption of wine with a tendency to generate surpluses. Since the 1970s, the EU addressed this waste by giving economic incentives, as a market intervention (Meloni and Swinnen, 2012), to wine producers for its distillation (crisis distillation): a tool intended to be used only to tackle conjunctural surpluses. Later the problem has become structural rather than due to a moment of emergency and the crisis distillation has also started to cover 'quality wines' (Commission of the European Communities, 2006).…”

“…The European Regulation (EC) n.479/2008 on the common organisation of the wine market has sanctioned the end for these incentives with effect from August 2012. In 2006, among others reforms, the EU Commission proposed the "green harvesting" a program aimed at eliminate surpluses through ex-ante measures rather than ex-post measures (incentives for distillation) (Meloni and Swinnen, 2012). As Belisario-S anchez et al (2012) highlighted, the simple use of wine to produce bioethanol is not economically and energy efficient, and causes a significant environmental impact, if there is no proper treatment of wastewater.…”