Wine law, sustainable innovation and the emergence of a wine constitution
From Firenze University Press Journal: Wine Economics and Policy
Tilman Reinhardt, Faculty of Life Sciences: Food Nutrition and Health, University of Bayreuth
Yasmine Ambrogio, Faculty of Life Sciences: Food Nutrition and Health, University of Bayreuth
Laura Springer, Faculty of Life Sciences: Food Nutrition and Health, University of Bayreuth
Maximilian Tafel, Department of Landscape Planning and Nature Conservation, Hochschule Geisenheim University
Se vogliamo che tutto rimanga com’ è, bisogna che tutto cambi» (Everything must change, so that everything stays the same) — Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, Il Gattopardo, 1958
Innovating is essential for the sustainability of the European Wine Sec-tor. New technologies and practices can help with current challenges of cli-mate change, disease pressure and shifting demand. They are also critical to minimize the environmental and health impact of wine production and consumption in the context of the ongoing transformation of food systems. European Wine Law is an essential factor for turn-ing terroir into economic value. It is also critical for the development and diffusion of innovation, especially in “mission-oriented” innovation systems characterized by strong directionality and high urgency. At the same time, innovation can present legislators with significant challenges and might even require a “reinven-tion” of the existing legal framework. In this contri-bution, we seek to assess the effect of European Wine law on innovation system development as well as its adaptive capacity in light of the sector’s current chal-lenges. The European Union is the most significant wine-producing region in the world. It is also the most reg-ulated wine market. EU wine law, i.e., the current Common Market Organization (CMO) Regulation (EU) 1308/2013 and its various delegated and implementing acts, mainly focus on wine quality and fraud prevention, especially with regard to Geographical Indications (GIs). GIs are seen as central to creating economic value and distributing it fairly by enabling the build-up of col-lective reputation . GIs may benefit public interests such as rural development or environmental sustainabil-ity, although such a contribution is not automatic. The EU promotes the GI system worldwide through bilateral and multilateral agreements. Through its case law, the European Court of Justice has accorded GIs a very high level of protection. EU regulations also cover aspects such as mandatory schemes of authorizations for vine plantings, national vineyard registers, accompanying documents and certi-fication for all wine transport and grape must in the EU, inward and outward registers, compulsory stock, and harvest declarations (cf. Reg. (EU) 2018/273), as well as an EU-wide isotopic database for authenticity control (cf. Implementing Reg. (EU) 2021/1007). The Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/934 specifies ingredients, addi-tives, enrichment, and specific oenological practices. All of these regulations into a complex international legal architecture. The CMO aligns with the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV) standards. Con-crete rules on names, controls, etc., are set out in nation-al or sub-national laws. In addition, the production of grapes and wine is also subject to general agriculture and food regulations. This includes sectoral interventions in the framework of national strategic plans of the new Common Agricultur-al Policy (CAP), which strongly focuses on innovation and sustainability. The CAP Strategic Plan Regulation (EU) 2021/2115 contains various related general (Art. 5 lit a and b) and specific objectives (Art 6 (1) lit b, d, e, f, i), as well as the cross-cutting objective of « fostering and sharing of knowledge, innovation and digitalisation in agriculture ». For the wine sector, Art. 57 and 58 offer a selection of specific objectives and related interventions, including, for example, varietal conversions related to climate change (lit. a i) or tangible and intangible invest-ments in innovation of various kinds (lit. e).
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36253/wep-16041
Read Full Text: https://oaj.fupress.net/index.php/wep/article/view/16041
