Press Release: CAP Reform: Commissioner Fischer Boel urges ministers to agree a bold wine reform

On the eve of the final negotiations on the wine reform at next week's Agriculture Council, Mariann Fischer Boel, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, called on ministers to take brave decisions to give the European wine sector a competitive future. 'It's time to do a deal – for a reform that will make a real difference. It's time to do a deal because the European Union's wine imports and production have been rising over the years while domestic consumption has been falling. And it's time to do a deal because we can spend the wine sector's budget so much better than we do now – in ways that will strengthen the sector and make more sense to the public. A deal is within our grasp at next week's Council. But it must be the right deal', she said.