Areas exempted from the scheme of authorisations for vine plantings
1. The scheme of authorisations for vine plantings laid down in Chapter III of Title I of Part II of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 shall not apply to the planting or replanting of areas referred to in Article 62(4) of that Regulation fulfilling the relevant conditions set out in paragraphs 2, 3 and 4 of this Article.
2. The planting or replanting of areas intended for experimental purposes or for graft nurseries shall be subject to a prior notification to the competent authorities. The notification shall include all relevant information in respect of those areas and the period during which the experiment will take place or the period during which the graft nursery will be in production. Extensions of such periods shall also be notified to the competent authorities.
Where no risks of market disturbance are considered to exist, Member States may decide that during the periods referred to in the first subparagraph the grapes produced in those areas and the wine products obtained from those grapes may be marketed. At the end of such periods, the producer shall either:
(a)
obtain an authorisation in accordance with Article 64 or 68 of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 for the area concerned, so that the grapes produced in that area and the wine products obtained from those grapes can be marketed; or
(b)
grub up such an area at his own cost in accordance with Article 71(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013.
Any areas intended for experiments or graft nurseries planted before 1 January 2016 following the granting of new planting rights shall continue to comply after that date with any conditions defined for the use of such rights until the end of the period of the experiment or the period of production of the graft nursery for which they were granted. After the expiry of such periods, the rules laid down in the first and second subparagraphs shall apply.
3. The planting or replanting of areas whose wine or vine products are intended solely for the consumption by the winegrower's household shall be subject to the following conditions:
(a)
such area does not exceed 0,1 ha;
(b)
the winegrower concerned is not involved in commercial wine production or in the commercial production of other wine products.
For the purposes of this paragraph, Member States may consider certain organisations without a commercial activity as equivalent to the winegrower's household.
Member States may decide that the plantings referred to in the first subparagraph are subject to a notification.
4. A producer having lost a certain area planted with vines due to compulsory purchases in the public interest under national law shall be entitled to plant a new area provided that such newly planted area does not exceed 105 % in terms of pure crop of the area lost. The newly planted area shall be registered in the vineyard register.
5. The grubbing up of areas benefiting from the exemption referred to in paragraphs 2 and 3 shall not give rise to an authorisation to replant under Article 66 of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013. However, such authorisation shall be granted in the event of grubbing up of areas newly planted under the exemption referred to in paragraph 4.
Criteria for granting authorisations
1. Where Member States apply the eligibility criterion laid down in Article 64(1)(c) of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013, the rules set out in Section A of Annex I to this Regulation shall apply.
Member States may also apply the additional objective and non-discriminatory criterion that the application shall not pose a significant risk of misappropriation of the reputation of specific protected geographical indications, which shall be presumed unless the existence of such risk is demonstrated by the public authorities.
The rules in relation to the application of this additional criterion are laid down in Section B of Annex I.
2. Where Member States decide to apply one or more of the eligibility criteria referred to in Article 64(1)(a) to (c) of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 and the additional criterion referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article, in the granting of authorisations for new plantings, they may apply such criteria at national level or at a lower territorial level.
3. Where Member States apply one or more of the priority criteria listed in Article 64(2) of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013, the rules laid down in Sections A to H of Annex II to this Regulation shall apply.
Member States may also apply the additional objective and non-discriminatory criteria of the prior behaviour of the producer and non-profit organisations with a social purpose that have received lands confiscated in cases of terrorism and other types of crime. The rules in relation to the application of these additional criteria are laid down in Section I of Annex II.
4. Where Member States decide to apply one or more of the priority criteria referred to in Article 64(2)(a) to (h) of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 and the additional criteria provided for in paragraph 3 of this Article, in the granting of authorisations for new plantings, they may apply such criteria uniformly at national level or with varying degrees of importance in different areas of the Member States.
5. The use of one or more of the criteria listed in Article 64(2) of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 as eligibility criteria at one of the geographical levels mentioned in Article 63(2) shall be considered duly justified for the purposes of point (d) of paragraph 1 of Article 64 of that Regulation if the use aims at addressing a specific problem affecting the wine growing sector at that specific geographic level which can only be addressed by such a restriction.
6. Without prejudice to the rules laid down in Annexes I and II with regard to specific eligibility and priority criteria, Member States shall adopt additional measures, where necessary, to avoid that applicants of authorisations circumvent the eligibility and priority criteria included in those Annexes.
Authorisations for anticipated replanting
Member States may make the granting of an authorisation to a producer undertaking to grub up an area planted with vines in accordance with Article 66(2) of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 subject to the requirement to lodge a security.
In any case, if the grubbing up is not carried out by the producers by the end of the fourth year from the date on which new vines were planted, Article 71 of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 shall apply in respect of the pledged area which has not been grubbed up.
Replanting restrictions
Member States may restrict the replantings on the basis of Article 66(3) of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013, where the specific area to be replanted is located in an area for which the issuing of authorisations for new plantings is limited in accordance with Article 63(2)(b) of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 and provided that the decision is justified by the need to avoid a well-demonstrated risk of significant devaluation of a specific protected designation of origin (‘PDO’) or protected geographical indication (‘PGI’).
The risk of significant devaluation referred to in the first paragraph does not exist if:
(a)
the specific area to be replanted is located in the same PDO or PGI area as the area grubbed up and the replanting of vines complies with the same PDO or PGI specification as the area grubbed up;
(b)
the replanting is aimed at the production of wines without a geographical indication provided that the applicant undertakes the same commitments as those laid down in point (2) of Sections A and B of Annex I to this Regulation in relation to new plantings.
Source: EUR-Lex (Publications Office of the EU), © European Union, reuse permitted under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU.
