Italy avoids the risk of penalization for red meats, cured meats and wine in the promotion funding programs. Together with 9 other EU members including France and Spain, our country voted against the proposed 2023 Annual Work Program for the promotion of agricultural and food products put forward by the European Commission. The program, which for 2023 is worth around 186 million euros, establishes the selection criteria for access to EU funds for promotion, and wanted to penalize products such as meat, wine and spirits in general as they are judged unhealthy.
The European Commission is now faced with two alternatives: present a modified program and seek the green light of the states, or go ahead independently. But the signal sent by the countries was clear. The Italian agri-food producers applaud team play: “The Commission’s clumsy attempt to surreptitiously revise the evaluation criteria contained in the annual work program of the agricultural promotion policy for the year 2023 was rejected – said the president of Alleanza Cooperative Agroalimentari, Carlo Piccinini – it is not the first time that the Commission services have tried to anticipate in an administrative way political guidelines still under discussion and certainly dystonic with respect to the current regulatory framework; now he will have to take note of the expressed opposition and reformulate the work program ».
Even the Italian wine sector applauds the narrow escape: “The vote of the Italian delegation, together with the French and Spanish ones, was decisive in averting yet another attack on the flag sector of the Italian agri-food sector, already under pressure from the economic situation”, reads in a joint note from Confagricoltura, Cia – Italian farmers, Copagri, Alleanza delle Cooperative, Unione Italiana Vini, Federdoc, Federvini and Assoenologi.