This has had a significant impact on the reduction of Community production potential. Since 1996 however, the impact of this measure has been considerably reduced, following the Council decision to enable Member States to exclude a part or all of their territory from the regime. The Uruguay Round Agreement , which entered into force on 1 July 1995, radically changed the trading system with third countries in the wine sector. A further significant consequence of the entry into force of this Agreement is that, in an open market, which is now the case for the European Union wine market, it is more difficult to improve market conditions and to support prices by a withdrawal mechanism of the surpluses quantities. Indeed, additional quantities are attracted from outside and the prices on this market cannot increase far beyond the price of the imported products.
Enrichment is an oenological process to increase the natural alcohol content in wine.
Enrichment by sucrose is a technique applied traditionally in a large number of wine-growing regions in the center and north of the Community. The degree of alcohol derived from sucrose costs approximately one third of the cost of the degree of grape-based alcohol. To prevent producers in the South being penalised by this practice, an aid for the use of concentrated grape musts and of rectified concentrated grape musts was introduced in 1982. Furthermore, due to a reduction in the natural alcoholic strength at which it was necessary to obtain wine in these regions, there was a consequent increase in yield and, thereby in production throughout the Community. For 1998, budget estimate for total wine sector expenditure is 826 MECU, compared to 970 M ECU in 1997.