How the UK is subsidising the EU’s wine lake

The £10 billion subsidy to Italian, French, and Spanish winemakers is set to increase

The EU has announced plans to pour even more taxpayer money into wine

On Tuesday in Brussels, the EU Commission announced that it has adopted a package of “exceptional measures” to support the EU’s wine sector more than it already does.

These new measures include the temporary authorisation for operators to self-organise market measures – in essence this means the scrapping of many competition laws this year. It also means an increase of the European Union's contribution for wine national support programmes, and the introduction of advance payments for distillation and storage.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

Remember the EU wine lake?

The EU27’s wine industry is one of many which has benefited from UK taxpayer funding
In the last 10 years €11.16 billion (over £10bn) has been spent by the EU on this
The biggest beneficiaries of the EU’s largesse with other people’s money are Italy, France, and Spain
In the last six years the United Kingdom has received nothing at all from the EU for the UK's wine industry

What is the EU planning now?

The EU’s new plans for the wine industry include:

Suspending competition rules: producers can self-organise and implement market measures at their level
Increase of the EU's contribution: to reach 70%
Advanced payments for crisis distillation and storage: these can now cover up to 100% of costs

So who is in charge of the EU’s wine cellar?

The unelected Eurocrat responsible for this area of the EU’s business is Janusz Wojciechowski. He has the title of ‘Agriculture and Rural Development Commissioner’.

Mr Wojciechowski (pictured right) comes from Poland. He has never worked in agriculture, nor in the food industry, nor in the drinks industry. In fact he has never worked in any commercial business of any kind. Yet he is the EU Commissioner for Agriculture.

Before his appointment by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen he spent three years as a lawyer working for the EU Court of Auditors.

On Tuesday Mr Wojciechowski said:

“the uncertainties surrounding the scale of the crisis at EU and global level, and a close monitoring of the market has led us to propose a new package of measures for the wine sector. I am confident that these measures will provide rapidly concrete results for the EU wine sector and soon provide stability.”

Observations

Is £10 billion a lot of money?

To our readers and to the Brexit Facts4EU.Org team, yes it is. We would love to have had a tiny fraction of it to fund our work. In the overall scheme of the vast amounts spent by the EU, however, it is not.

Nevertheless this is still £10 billion of taxpayers’ money. Those in the private sector have had to earn this. As we enter a catastrophic economic phase when the public starts to realise just what the UK’s and other governments’ disproportionate reaction to the COVID virus will cost us all, we would suggest that every £1 billion is important.

We researched and published this report not because of the amounts of money involved. We did it because this is just one more example of the ways in which the EU has been spending British taxpayers’ money. Whenever we look at a particular area of EU expenditure, it’s funny how the UK always seems to be at the bottom – or near the bottom – of the list of recipients of the EU’s largesse.

In this case the UK has received nothing back from the EU since 2013.

This is the EU which Remainer-Rejoiner campaigners and politicians from the Labour, SNP, LibDem, Greens, SDLP, Sinn Fein, and other parties wish you to remain a part of.

And finally…

We would love to say that we were forced to spend large amounts of money on copious quantities of wine in our research for this article. Sadly our Editor refused. He felt we should continue with our policy that donations from the public should fund the time we spend on researching and publishing the most original Brexit content available on the Internet. No taxis, restaurants, bar bills, plush London offices. Just pure hard work.

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[ Sources: EU Commission ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Thur 09 July 2020

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Reader Comments 12

1. Patrick F , Thursday, July 09, 2020, 06:19:

Off topic.
Yesterday, in a powerful gesture of solidarity the England and West Indies cricket teams, "took the knee" to express their support for the BLM (Brexit Lives Matter) movement.
Ben Steaks, England captain said. "It's now over four years since the referendum. Since then, over 17.4 million Leave voters have been subject to systematic remainerism. We have been judged on how we voted and been branded as thick, white, middle aged xenophobes. This must stop. Remainerism is a blight on our sport and in society."
Jason Holdups, West Indian captain added "We stand in solidarity with Ben, the England cricket team and the BLM movement. The right of all peoples to live in free, independent, sovereign countries is paramount to our freedoms, happiness and democracy. Together we will defeat remainerism."

2. Toasting Tessa from Telford , Thursday, July 09, 2020, 06:21:

Dear EU Commission,
I hope that the replacement for the UK contributions to your EU budget are all sorted. Cheers!

3. Sydney Ashurst , Thursday, July 09, 2020, 07:13:

The Wine Lake. Where the money goes.
French winemakers are to turn unsold wine into hand gel and ethanol to make room for this year’s production, the country’s farming agency has said.
The government agency FranceAgriMer said around 3m hectolitres needed distilling as a result of lower sales during the coronavirus crisis.
Winemakers have been hit by the closure of bars and restaurants in France and abroad. Exports to the US, which halved after the Trump administration introduced punitive 25% tariffs last October, fell further after the Covid-19 outbreak.
FranceAgriMer said that from Friday, 33 distilleries had been authorised to collect 2m hectolitres of unsold wine to transform it into ethanol or hydro-alcoholic gel in order to free up room in vintners’ caves for this year’s production.
The exceptional measure has been approved by Brussels, and the EU will finance the distillation, the agency added.
Barnier has Fish on the menu again, but it is in short supply, in the reduced EU waters. Global warming is being blamed for some species swimming away into cooler British waters.

4. Howard J , Thursday, July 09, 2020, 07:33:

Criminal organisation stealing as much from us as possible before 1st January.

5. Concerned , Thursday, July 09, 2020, 09:16:

1. Patrick "Remainerism" -great new dictionary item. Equates to Communism/Nazis/Socialism - i.e. no good for anyone except the so-called elite numpties busy feathering their nests.

6. Karon P , Thursday, July 09, 2020, 12:53:

Level playing field 😂 😂 😂

7. JonL , Thursday, July 09, 2020, 18:28:

There are countries that produce agricultural alcohol in sustainable and economically efficient ways. For example, Brazil has had an ethanol industry based on sugarcane for forty years and now supplies 26% of the World's agricultural ethanol.
Compared to this, growing grapes, turning them into wine, and then later turning the wine into industrial alcohol must be extremely inefficient.
It's a pretty good example of using subsidies, not to produce a cheap or efficient product, but to achieve political goals - save producers, protect employment, reward lobbyists - as a side-effect.
Fortunately, by reducing inputs to the EU's budget, Brexit will help bring home the costs of such wasteful EU policies.

8. Jon, Wales , Thursday, July 09, 2020, 21:06:

It's long overdue where Prime Minister Boris Johnson should in my opinion have the guts to withhold the approximate UK net contribution to the EU.
I mean, it's not as though we get it back, but we should not be funding our competitors following our legal departure from the EU on 31 January, 2020.
The above article, together with many Brexit Facts4EU.Org articles, clearly show the UK doesn't really benefit from the EU.
I find it sickening we need to correct over four decades of deceit from the EEC onwards for the benefit of future UK generations, as our forebears fought for our freedoms. Imagine for a moment the EU was subjected to UK parliamentary scrutiny - but then, transparency is a dirty word in the eyes of the EU.
They [the Commission] like to keep matters secret from peoples across the Continent whom are now finding out for themselves the EU political construct is a dictatorial sham. Eurosceptics are becoming ever more vocal where they once had little idea of EU deceit.
The UK does not wish harm to continental sovereign countries - it's not who we are - we just have a different vision regarding freedoms.
Whilst the UK will be friendly and trade together, it has become clear over the years the EU wish to harm the UK, and by doing so, harm themselves.
As the EU has a mindset of continuous threats towards our country after we had the audacity to leave its political construct, they should not then be surprised when UK citizens opt to buy elsewhere - and this is where ordinary consumers hold all the cards.
The sooner they remove Mr Barnier et al, the better - and the sooner the EU implodes, the better for all concerned.
For me, the UK fishing industry is but one priority among others, and I will hold Boris to his promises.

9. Concerned , Friday, July 10, 2020, 07:46:

Well said 8, Jon I could not agree more with you.

10. Alan S , Friday, July 10, 2020, 14:47:

Californian, Australian, South African, Chilean and good old British. Don't need eu over priced vine!

12 comments, page 1 of 2

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