CELEX: 31977R1677
Language: en
Date: 1977-07-19 00:00:00
Title: Council Regulation (EEC) No 1677/77 of 19 July 1977 amending Regulation (EEC) No 816/70 laying down additional provisions for the common organization of the market in wine

No L 187/6                             Official Journal of the European Communities                                   27. 7. 77
                                      COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC) No 1677/77
                                                         of 19 July 1977
                amending Regulation (EEC) No 816/70 laying down additional provisions for the
                                      common organization of the market in wine
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN                                         is therefore necessary to provide for their distillation
COMMUNITIES,                                                        in the event of the harvest of such wines exceeding
                                                                    the normal use of the preceding marketing year by
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European               one million hectolitres ; whereas, moreover, it seems
Economic Community, and in particular Article 43                    valid, in order to improve Regulation (EEC) No
thereof,                                                            816/70, to incorporate in a separate Article the provi­
                                                                    sions on such distillation and those concerning the
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,                  distillation of wines produced from varieties of vines
Having regard to the opinion of the European Parlia­                obtained from inter-specific crossings, since the latter
ment (!),                                                           distillation is also optional and the buying-in price of
                                                                    wine is the same for both types of distillation ;
Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and
Social Committee (2),                                               Whereas each year the Commission is required to
                                                                    submit a report to the Council which, in particular,
Whereas experience shows that certain amendments                    records the ratio between production and utilization
should be made to Regulation (EEC) No 816/70 of 28                  and estimates foreseeable changes in that ratio on the
April 1970 laying down additional provisions for the                basis, in particular, of the forecasts ; whereas provision
common organization of the market in wine (3), as last              should be made for this report to be based also on the
amended by Regulation (EEC) No 528/77 (4) ;                         latest figures of the viticultural land register provided
                                                                    for by Regulation No 26/64/EEC (5), as last amended
Whereas it appears that the present system for the                  by Regulation (EEC) No 1 456/76 (6) ;
storage of grape must does not enable intervention
measures for these products to be put into operation                Whereas, in the interests of clarity, Article 24a of
at the proper time ; whereas, moreover, the interven­               Regulation (EEC) No 816/70 should be amended to
tion measures provided for should not be allowed to                 specify that the additional rate of wine deliveries may
be diverted from their purpose ; whereas, therefore, in             be varied for all wines and according to production
the case of grape must or concentrated grape must,                  regions ;
provision should be made, where very large stocks of
these products exist, for the activation of intervention            Whereas, for certain wines imported under Commu­
measures consisting, as a first stage, and if preventive            nity rules, two certificates giving the same information
distillation    has  been     decided    on,   of short-term        are required ; whereas, in order to simplify administra­
contracts, which could later be replaced by long-term               tive procedures, this duplication should be avoided
contracts when storage contracts may be entered into                and it should be laid down             that all the details
for table wines, on the understanding that grape must               requested in the certificate or in the analysis report
intended for the production of grape juice may be                   shall not be required as a matter of course in these
excluded from this option ;                                         cases,
Whereas, under Article 6b, preventive distillation may
not be decided on until there are at least 10 million
hectolitres under storage contracts at the beginning of              HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION :
the wine year ; whereas, to ensure that this measure
has the desired effect, this condition should be relaxed
by making a considerable reduction in this amount ;                                            Article 1
Whereas       the   distillation  of    wines    suitable   for
producing certain potable spirits from wine with a                  Article 4a (2) of Regulation (EEC) No 816/70 shall be
registered designation of origin may be authorized                  replaced by the following :
under certain conditions ; whereas, however, a sizeable
                                                                        '2.     With the exception of table wines of types R
harvest of such wines may disturb the market in table                    III , A II and A III , table wines with an actual alco­
wines even if such conditions are not met : whereas it
                                                                         holic strength equal to or below 9-5° shall be
                                                                         excluded     from  all   intervention  measures other
(') OJ No C 163, 11 . 7. 1977, p. 78 .                                   than that referred to in Article 6b and Article 6d.'
(2) Opinion delivered on 22 and 23 June 1977 (not yet
     published in the Official Journal).
(3 ) OJ No L 99, 5 . 5 . 1970, p. 1 .                               (5) OJ No 48, 19. 3. 1964, p. 753/64.
(4) OJ No L 69, 16. 3 . 1977, p. 1 .                                (*) OJ No L 163, 24. 5 . 1976, p. 13 .
 ---pagebreak--- 27. 7. 77                           Official Journal of the European Communities                           No L 187/7
                         Article 2                                quantitative effects of the distillation of wines
                                                                  produced from table grapes referred to in Article
Article 5 of Regulation (EEC) No 816/70 shall be                  24b and of the distillation decided upon before­
replaced by the following :                                       hand under Article 24a shall be deducted.
    4Article 5                                                    5. Where and for such time as long-term
                                                                  contracts may be entered into in accordance with
     1 . A system of aid is hereby instituted for the             paragraph 4, the application of paragraph 2 or 3
    private storage of table wine.                                shall be suspended in respect of the same type of
                                                                  table wine. This suspension of application shall
    Aid shall be granted subject to the conclusion with           also apply to wines that are closely related econom­
    intervention agencies, on terms and conditions to             ically to the table wine concerned.
    be determined, of one of the following types of
    storage contract :                                            6.    Permission to enter into storage contracts as
                                                                  provided for in the second subparagraph of para­
    — contracts valid for a period of three months,               graph 2 and in paragraphs 3 and 4 shall be
         hereinafter called "short-term contracts",               decided upon in accordance with the procedure
    — contracts valid for a period of nine months,                laid down in Article 7 of Regulation No 24.
         concluded   between    16   December    and   15
         February of the following year, hereinafter              The same procedure shall be followed :
         called "long-term contracts".
                                                                  (a) for deciding, if justified by the development of
    2. Short-term contracts may be entered into in                    the market situation and in particular by the
    respect of a type of table wine only when the                     rate of conclusion of storage contracts, that
    weighted average price of that table wine remains                 long-term contracts may no longer be entered
    below the activating price for two consecutive                    into even before 1 5 February ;
   weeks. They may not be entered into when the                   (b) for adopting other detailed rules for the appli­
    weighted average price for this type of wine is                   cation of this Article, and in particular the
    above the activating price for two consecutive                    time limit for the decisions to be taken in
    weeks .                                                           accordance with the second subparagraph of
                                                                      paragraph 2.
    If the state of the market so requires, a decision
    may be taken to allow short-term contracts to be              7.    The    Commission       shall  decide   whether
    concluded also in respect of table wines other than           storage contracts may or may not be entered into
    those of the type for which they may be                       in accordance with the first subparagraph of para­
   concluded in accordance with the first subpara­               graph 2 and whether they may no longer be
   graph, where such table wines are closely related              entered into in accordance with the second subpa­
   economically to that type of table wine. Such                  ragraph of paragraph 2.'
   contracts may no longer be entered into in respect
   of these wines when they are not permissible in
    respect of the type of table wine to which they are                                Article 3
   closely related economically.
                                                              The following Article shall be added to Regulation
   3. Independently of the provisions of paragraph            (EEC) No 816/70 :
   2, short-term contracts may be entered into in
   respect of a given wine-growing zone or part                   Article 5a
   thereof when, especially because of an exception­
   ally abundant harvest, an imbalance appears at the
   beginning of the wine year in such zone or part                1 . A system of aid is hereby instituted for the
   thereof between the quantities available and the              private storage of grape must and concentrated
   quantities that can be sold.                                  grape must.
   4.     Long-term contracts may be entered into in             Private storage aid shall be granted subject to the
   respect of certain types of table wine to be speci­           conclusion with the intervention agencies, on
   fied, if the estimates for a wine year show that the          terms and conditions to be determined, of one of
   quantity of such wines available at the beginning             the following types of storage contract :
   of that year exceeds foreseeable requirements for
   that year by more than four months' consumption .             — contracts valid for a period of three months,
                                                                      hereinafter called "short-term contracts",
   For the purpose of calculating the quantity avail­            — contracts valid for a period of nine months,
   able referred to in the first subparagraph, the                    hereinafter called " long-term contracts".
 ---pagebreak--- No L 187/8                          Official Journal of the European Communities                               27 . 7 . 77
     2. If the market situation so requires, and in                to give the producer the option of distilling wines
     particular :                                                  produced from varieties of vines obtained from
                                                                   interspecific crossings (direct producer hybrids)
    — when preventive distillation is decided on                   falling into the category of provisionally autho­
         pursuant to Article 6b, the conclusion of short­          rized varieties .
         term contracts may be permitted between 1
         September and 15 December following,                      3 . The buying-in price for wine delivered for
    — when a decision is taken to allow long-term                  distillation under paragraphs 1 and 2 shall be that
         private storage contracts for table wines to be           laid down in Article 24a (3) for the wine year
         concluded, the conclusion of long-term                    concerned . The price paid by the distiller may not
         contracts may be permitted between 16                     be less than the buying-in-price.
         December and 28 February following.
         However, grape must intended for the produc­              4. The Council, acting on a proposal from the
         tion of grape juice may be excluded from this             Commission in accordance with the voting proce­
         option .                                                  dure laid down in Article 43 (2) of the Treaty, shall
                                                                   adopt general rules concerning the distillation
     3. The decision to permit the conclusion of                   referred to in paragraphs 1 and 2, and in particular
    storage contracts in accordance with paragraph 2               concerning :
    and the detailed rules for the application of this
    Article shall be adopted in accordance with the               — the conditions under which distillation may be
    procedure laid down in Article 7 of Regulation No                   carried out,
    24.'
                                                                  — the criteria for determining the amount of aid
                                                                        so as to enable the distilled products to be
                         Article 4
                                                                        disposed of.
Article 6b ( 1 ) of Regulation (EEC) No 816/70 shall be            5. The decision to carry out the distillation
replaced by the following :                                        referred to in paragraph 1 or that referred to in
                                                                   paragraph 2 and the detailed rules for the applica­
    ' 1 . Where, during the period 1 September to 15               tion of this Article shall be adopted in accordance
    December following, the quantity of table wines of            with the procedure laid down in Article 7 of Regu­
    all types under storage contracts is equal to or               lation No 24 .'
    greater than seven million hectolitres, preventive
    distillation may be decided on for all wines,
    except :                                                                            Article 6
    — wines produced from table grapes,                       Article 24a of Regulation (EEC) No 816/70 shall be
    — wines produced from varieties of vines                  amended as follows :
         obtained from interspecific crossings (direct
         producer hybrids) falling into the category of       (a) paragraph 4 shall be deleted ;
         provisionally authorized varieties,                  (b) paragraph 5 shall become paragraph 4 ;
    — wines suitable for producing certain potable            (c) paragraph 6 shall be replaced by the following :
         spirits obtained from wine with a registered
         designation of origin .'                                 '5. The decision fixing the additional rate
                                                                  provided for in paragraph 1 and the detailed rules
                                                                  for applying this Article shall be adopted in accor­
                         Article 5                                dance with the procedure laid down in Article 7 of
                                                                  Regulation No 24.'
The following shall be added to Regulation (EEC) No
816/70 :
                                                                                       Article 7
     Article 6d
                                                              The first subparagraph of Article 17 (4) of Regulation
    1.     In years in which the harvest of wine suitable     (EEC) No 816/70 shall be replaced by the following :
    for producing certain potable spirits obtained from
   wine with a registered designation of origin                   '4.     Each year, before 31 December, the Commis­
   exceeds the volume of wine used for this purpose               sion shall submit a report to the Council which, in
    in the previous wine year by one million hecto­               particular, records the ratio between production
   litres, it may be decided that the wines in question           and utilization and estimates foreseeable changes
   may be distilled .                                             in that ratio on the basis, in particular, of the fore­
                                                                  casts provided / for in paragraph 3 and the latest
   2.      In the 1976/77 and 1977/78 wine years, it              figures of the viticultural land register provided for
    may, at the request of a Member State, be decided             in Regulation 26/64/ EEC.'
 ---pagebreak--- 27 . 7 . 77                       Official Journal of the European Communities                            No L 187/9
                        Article 8                                                       Article 9
Article 24a of Regulation (EEC) No 816/70 shall be
amended as follows :                                         The following shall be added to Article 28 ( la) of
                                                             Regulation (EEC) No 816/70 :
1 . The third subparagraph of paragraph 1 shall be
    replaced by the following :                                 '(c) to enable the requirements contained in the
                                                                     certificate or the analysis report, referred to in
    'A decision may be taken to adjust the additional                ( 1 ) (a) above, to be dispensed with in whole or
    rate according to area on the basis of one or more                in part, in the case of certain wines accompa­
    of the following criteria :                                       nied by a certificate of designation of origin or
    — the yield per hectare,                                          by a certificate of origin .'
    — the vine variety,
    — the colour or the type of the wine,
                                                                                       Article 10
    — the alcoholic strength .'
2. The last subparagraph of paragraph 2 shall be             This Regulation shall enter into force on 1 September
    deleted .                                                1977 .
              This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member
              States .
              Done at Brussels, 19 July 1977.
                                                                           For the Council
                                                                             The President
                                                                             A. HUMBLET