|
"A tendering procedure for the sale of wine alcohol
for exclusive use as bioethanol in the fuel sector in
the Community should be organized ... with a view to
reducing Community stocks of wine alcohol and ensuring
continuity of supplies," it said.
France, the world's largest wine producer, would offer
239,995 hectoliters of wine for distillation, while
Italy and Spain would offer 200,000 hectoliters each.
The balance will come from Greece.
France , Italy and Spain are the EU's largest winemakers
by volume and receive generous amounts of cash from
Brussels to distill some of their excess wine, both
table and quality, into industrial alcohol.
Later this year, EU farm ministers will discuss a
European Commission proposal for a sweeping reform of
EU wine policy that would abolish "crisis distillation"
-- an emergency market tool used as a short-term measure
to correct supply imbalances.
The Commission complains that the EU wine industry
still depends too much on distillation to rid itself
of unwanted "wine lakes" at the taxpayers'
expense, saying a fundamental reform is needed to make
EU wines more competitive.
Meanwhile, The Greek government intends to seek from
EU financial support in the wake of the forest fires
which ravaged the country last weekend. The process
for fund release can take up to eight months.
Greece has been severely hit by forest fires this summer,
with an area of 1,840 square kilometers burned over
the last weekend alone. Athens-based business daily
Imerisia quoted Wednesday the Greek finance ministry
officials as saying that the fires had caused up to
5 billion euro of damage.
Resource: Reuters
|
