Temporary crisis distillation of wine
Article 2
1. Support may be granted for the distillation of red wines produced in the continental territory of Portugal and protected by a designation of origin or a geographical indication in accordance with Part II, Title II, Chapter I, Section 2, of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013. 2. The alcohol resulting from the supported distillation referred to in paragraph 1 shall be used exclusively for industrial purposes, including disinfection or pharmaceutical, or for energy purposes so as to avoid distortion of competition. 3. The beneficiaries of the support referred to in paragraph 1 shall be wine enterprises producing or marketing the grapevine products referred to in Part II of Annex VII to Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013, wine producer organisations, wine cooperatives, associations of two or more producers, interbranch organisations or distillers of grapevine products. 4. Only the costs of the supply of wine to distillers and of the distillation of this wine shall be eligible for support. Value added tax shall not be eligible for support. The wine to be distilled under this measure shall be conform to the requirements to be marketed within the Union and to the relevant product specifications of their protected designation of origin or protected geographical indication. 5. Portugal may establish priority criteria for the beneficiaries of this measure. Such priority criteria shall be objective and not discriminatory. 6. Portugal may provide for up to 80 % of the support for a given operation of crisis distillation, covered by an accepted support application under this Article, to be advanced to beneficiaries, provided that the beneficiary has lodged a bank guarantee or an equivalent security, at least equal to the amount of that advance, in favour of the Member State. For such operation to be eligible, the final payment of support shall be done before the date referred to in Article 1(3). 7. Portugal shall lay down rules on the application procedure for the support referred to in paragraph 1 and on the control of the measure, which shall include rules on: (a) the natural or legal persons that may submit applications; (b) the submission and selection of applications, which shall include at least the deadlines for the submission of applications, for the examination of the suitability of each proposed action and for the notification of the results of the selection procedure to the operators; (c) the verification of compliance with the provisions on eligible products and costs referred to in paragraph 4 and priority criteria where priority criteria are applied; (d) the selection of the applications, which shall at least include the weighting attributed to each priority criterion where priority criteria are applied; (e) arrangements for the payment of advances and the provision of securities; (f) the monitoring and control of the operations of distillation, the eligibility of the wines distilled and the use of the produced alcohol. 8. Portugal shall fix the amount of support to beneficiaries based on objective and non-discriminatory criteria, at regional or national level. The amount of support cannot exceed 80 % of the lowest monthly average price recorded at production level during the marketing year 2023/2024 for the eligible wine categories, in a given region or in the continental territory of Portugal, as appropriate. Where recorded market prices are not available, they may be estimated by a competent authority of Portugal based on the best available data.