Planting Rights

planting rights, became important when an EU scheme, in force since 1976, restricted the planting of new vineyards in member states. It was part of a group of control measures aimed at reducing the wine surplus within the EU. The 2008 reform of the common market organization for wine (see eu) announced that the scheme would end in 2015 (or, exceptionally, with a transitional period until 2018), raising objections from the majority of wine-producing member states that this would lead to a free-for-all. This opposition led to the creation of a new system of ‘authorizations to plant vines’ which will be managed by national, sometimes regional, authorities and will regulate vineyard plantings not only for pdo and pgi wines but also, more controversially, for wine without geographical indication. The annual maximum percentage growth in vineyard area is fixed at 1%.