Official Gazette Notification Text
Official TranscriptOfficial Journal EN of the European Union L series 2026/2093 16.9.2026 COMMISSION DELEGATED REGULATION(EU) 2026/2093 of 10 July 2026 supplementing Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards national payments for the distillation of wine, green harvesting and grubbing up of productive vineyards in justified cases of crisis THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION, Having...
Official Journal EN of the European Union L series 2026/2093 16.9.2026 COMMISSION DELEGATED REGULATION(EU) 2026/2093 of 10 July 2026 supplementing Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards national payments for the distillation of wine, green harvesting and grubbing up of productive vineyards in justified cases of crisis THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION, Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, Having regard to Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 establishing a common organisation of the markets in agricultural products and repealing Council Regulations
(EEC) No 922/72, (EEC) No 234/79, (EC) No 1037/2001 and (EC) No 1234/2007(1), and in particular Article 216(4), Article 223 and Article 227 thereof,
Whereas:
(1) Regulation (EU) 2026/471 of the European Parliament and of the Council(2)introduces a series of measures to adapt the wine production potential, to manage the wine market and to support the wine sector to address the different challenges affecting it and to adapt the sector to new market developments in a context of high international uncertainty. Among other measures, Regulation (EU) 2026/471 enlarged the scope of Article 216 of Regulation
(EU) No 1308/2013. In addition to distillation of wine, Member States may now seek approval from the Commission to make national payments to support green harvesting and voluntary grubbing up of productive vineyards in cases of crisis under certain conditions. The Commission has been empowered to supplement that Article by laying down rules on the general conditions of eligibility and priority criteria in respect of such national payments, as well as to determine the market situations under which such measures are justified, to determine the calculation method of such payments and to set rules on the coherence with other Common Agricultural Policy support measures.
(2) In this context, it is pertinent to define the conditions for the existence of a crisis situation for which Member States may seek approval to make national payments for distillation, green harvesting and grubbing up of productive vineyards as well as the categories and colours of wine such measures may be applied to.
(3) Wine distillation and green harvesting aim to remove excess wine from the market, and to prevent such wine being produced before the harvest, respectively. While these measures are appropriate in situations when the wine market is affected by conjunctural oversupply situations that generate, or threat to generate, market disturbance, the permanent grubbing up of productive vineyards aims to address structural market imbalances between the supply and the demand. Therefore, the criteria to identify the market circumstances that justify the approval of the national payments for such measures need to reflect on the one hand a conjunctural market oversupply in the short and medium term and a longer-term structural market imbalance on the other hand. Therefore, the criteria to identify the market circumstances that can justify the approval of such national payments have to be defined differently for wine distillation and green harvesting on the one hand and for the permanent grubbing up of productive vineyards on the other hand. Considering the strong segmentation of the Union wine market, it is pertinent to allow Member States to target the measures to the appropriate geographical scope and to the types of wines affected by the market crisis. Therefore, it is pertinent to allow that the measures to be defined by Member States may apply at regional or national level and for one or more categories and colours of wine.
(1) OJ L 347, 20.12.2013, p. 671, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2013/1308/oj.
(2) Regulation (EU) 2026/471 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 February 2026 amending Regulations
(EU) No 1308/2013, (EU) No 251/2014 and (EU) 2021/2115 as regards certain market rules and sectoral support measures in the wine sector and for aromatised wine products and Regulation (EU) 2024/1143 as regards certain labelling rules for spirit drinks (OJ L, 2026/471, 26.2.2026, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2026/471/oj).
ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg_del/2026/2093/oj 1/7EN OJ L, 16.9.2026
(4) It is also pertinent to set basic eligibility criteria depending on the content of the measure. Only wine growers cultivating vineyards for the purpose of wine production may be eligible under certain conditions to national payments for green harvesting and the grubbing up of productive vineyards, while other operators producing, marketing or distilling wine may benefit from national payments in respect of wine distillation. In this respect, in case of wine distillation, it is important that when the beneficiaries are not wine producers, Member States ensure that the economic benefit resulting from the national payments is passed on to the wine producers. To ensure consistency of the Union wine policy, it should be avoided that winegrowers holding vineyards planted without authorisation benefit from support for grubbing up or green harvesting. For the same reasons of policy coherence, only wines which fulfil the relevant Union legal requirements and conditions, including the requirements for wines bearing a protected designation of origin or a protected geographical indication, when applicable, may benefit from public support for distillation.
(5) To ensure a fair level playing field among wine producers in different Member States and to avoid distortion of competition, it is pertinent to set the elements that Member States should consider in the calculation of the maximum support to be provided in the form of national payments for the green harvesting, wine distillation and grubbing up of productive vineyards.
(6) To avoid that green harvesting and wine distillation become a regular market outlet for wines from regions affected by structural market imbalance, it is pertinent that Member States applying such measures recurrently address also the underlying structural causes for such imbalance. Therefore, new authorisations for green harvesting and distillation should be conditional on the parallel application of voluntary grubbing-up of productive vineyards and on the application of the conditions, provided under Article 58(1), second subparagraph, of Regulation
(EU) 2021/2115 of the European Parliament and of the Council(3) when implementing restructuring and reconversion interventions. These conditions aim to avoid that restructuring and reconversion interventions contribute to the increase of yields in regions already affected by a structural market imbalance.
(7) To ensure the proper functioning and a harmonised approach to the system of application for the national payments referred to in this Regulation, it is pertinent to set certain requirements on the information to be provided by the Member States to the Commission to justify their request for approval and to provide for certain notification requirements on the effective implementation of the measures within a certain yearly deadline.
(8) In view of the challenges the wine sector is currently facing, it is necessary to give Member States the possibility to implement the measures provided by this Regulation during the coming marketing year. Therefore, this Regulation should enter into force on the day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union,
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:
Article 1 Subject matter
1. This Regulation lays down rules supplementing Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 as regards the requests for approval of national payments that Member States may make in the wine sector for the distillation of wine, green harvesting and grubbing up of productive vineyards, in justified cases of market crisis, in accordance with Article 216 of that Regulation.
(3) Regulation (EU) 2021/2115 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 2 December 2021 establishing rules on support for strategic plans to be drawn up by Member States under the common agricultural policy (CAP Strategic Plans) and financed by the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF) and by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) and repealing Regulations (EU) No 1305/2013 and (EU) No 1307/2013 (OJ L 435, 6.12.2021, p. 1, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2021/2115/oj).
2/7 ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg_del/2026/2093/ojEN OJ L, 16.9.2026
2. This Regulation sets out the criteria that Member States shall use to determine the existence of a market crisis that justifies the granting of the national payments referred to in paragraph 1, as well as the general eligibility conditions and the rules for the calculation of the maximum support amounts that Member States may grant through such national payments.
3. This Regulation also provides for certain coherence requirements between such national payments and other support measures of the Common Agricultural Policy for the wine sector granted in the same production region.
Article 2 Definitions For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions apply:
(1) ‘distillation’ means the disposal of wine as defined in point 1 of Part II of Annex VII to Regulation
(EU) No 1308/2013, by complete distillation into raw alcohol with an alcoholic strength of at least 92 % by volume;
(2) ‘green harvesting’ means the operation defined in Article 3(5), point (c), of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013;
(3) ‘grubbing up’ means the complete uprooting and removal of all vine stocks of a certain vineyard area included in the register referred to in Article 145 of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013;
(4) ‘category’ of wine means, either a wine protected by a designation of origin, a wine protected by a geographical indication, or a wine without geographical indication;
(5) ‘colour’ of wine means, either a red wine, a rosé wine or a white wine.
Article 3 Distillation of wine and green harvesting in justified cases of crisis
1. Subject to the approval of the Commission as provided for in Article 216(2) of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013, Member States may grant national payments for distillation of wine and green harvesting in justified cases of crisis under the conditions provided in this Regulation. Such national payments shall be proportionate, duly justified and targeted to wines and production regions affected by a crisis situation, in accordance with paragraph 2 of this Article. The distillation and green harvesting may be implemented at national or regional level, for one or several categories and colours of wine.
2. To determine the existence of a crisis situation, the Member State wishing to make use of the national payments for the measures referred to in paragraph 1, shall demonstrate the occurrence of one or more of the following market circumstances, for the categories and colours of eligible wines, either at national or at regional level, as appropriate:
(a) a substantial increase in the latest available wine stocks at production level compared to the average wine stocks at the same time of the year in the five previous marketing years or, alternatively, in the five previous marketing years excluding the highest and the lowest values;
(b) a substantial decrease of the average wine market price at production level for the six latest months compared to the average market price over the five previous marketing years or, alternatively, over the five previous marketing years excluding the highest and the lowest values;
(c) a substantial decrease of cumulated wine market sales at production level for the ongoing marketing year compared to the average cumulated sales on the same period over the five previous marketing years, or, alternatively, over the five previous marketing years, excluding the highest and the lowest values, and provided such a decrease does not result from a decrease in production.
ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg_del/2026/2093/oj 3/7EN OJ L, 16.9.2026
3. The eligible beneficiaries of the national payments referred to in paragraph 1 shall be, for green harvesting, winegrowers whose holding include only vineyard areas planted with a planting authorisation in accordance with Union and national legislation and, for distillation, physical or legal persons producing or marketing wine, wine producer organisations or their associations, associations of two or more wine producers, or distillers of grapevine products.
Where the beneficiary of a distillation measure is not a wine producer, the concerned Member State shall ensure that the economic benefit of the measure is passed on to the relevant wine producers.
4. The maximum amount of the national payment per hectare in relation to green harvesting shall not be higher than
the sum of:
(a) the direct cost of the complete removal or destruction of the immature grape bunches, to be set by the Member State on the basis of representative standard costs;
(b) a compensation amount of no more than 50 % of the average value of the grapes produced in the same area over the previous three marketing years, calculated for average yields at average prices of grapes, for the categories of wine and colours of eligible wine in the relevant geographical area minus the average cost of harvesting in the same area; and
(c) an incentive of no more than 20 % of the sum of these two amounts.
5. The maximum amount of national payment per hectolitre of eligible wine benefiting from distillation shall not be
higher than the sum of:
(a) the cost of the operation of wine distillation, as estimated by the Member State on the basis of representative standard costs;
(b) a compensation amount of no more than 50 % of the average market price during the latest six months for the categories and colours of eligible wine and within the geographical scope of the measure; and
(c) an incentive of no more than 20 % of the sum of these two amounts.
6. The wine eligible for distillation in accordance with this Regulation shall be originating in the Union and shall conform to the requirements to be marketed within the Union and, where relevant, to the product specifications for wines bearing a protected designation of origin or a protected geographical indication.
Article 4 Grubbing up of productive vineyards in justified cases of crisis
1. Subject to the approval by the Commission as provided for in Article 216(2) of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013, Member States maintaining the vineyard register referred to in Article 145 of that Regulation may grant national payments for the voluntary grubbing up of productive vineyards implemented in their territory under the conditions provided in this regulation. Such national payments shall be proportionate, duly justified by the Member State and targeted to the wines and production regions affected by a structural market imbalance in accordance with paragraph 2 of this Article. The grubbing up may be implemented at national or regional level for specific areas or for vineyards producing one or several categories and colours of wines.
2. To determine the existence of a structural market imbalance, the Member State wishing to make use of national payments for the measure referred to in paragraph 1, shall demonstrate the occurrence of one of the following market circumstances, for the categories and colours of wine produced by eligible vineyards, either at regional or at national level,
as appropriate:
(a) a substantial increase of the average of estimated ending wine stocks in the previous five marketing years, compared to the average of estimated ending wine stocks in the previous 10 marketing years. The increase of estimated wine stocks in the previous five marketing years shall also be significantly bigger than the increase in average wine production over the same reference period of the previous 10 marketing years.
4/7 ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg_del/2026/2093/ojEN OJ L, 16.9.2026 The estimated ending wine stocks of a marketing year mean the actual ending wine stocks of that marketing year increased by the quantities of wine removed from the market in the same marketing year by national or Union distillation or green harvesting. The quantity of wine removed by green harvesting is calculated by converting the area subject to green harvesting into wine volume equivalent at average yield in the same year in the same geographical area where it has been applied;
(b) the annual wine production being substantially above the wine volumes annually sold at production level in at least three years over the five previous marketing years;
(c) at least one of the market circumstances referred to in Article 3(2) has occurred in at least three marketing years over the five previous marketing years;
(d) a substantial decrease of the average annual profitability per hectare of vineyard during the previous 10 marketing years, calculated on the basis of a standard methodology used in the economic analysis of the farming sector.
3. The eligible beneficiaries of the national payments for the grubbing up of productive vineyards shall be wine growers whose holding include only vineyard areas planted with a planting authorisation in accordance with Union and national legislation.
4. Only vineyards which, at the time the beneficiary submits the application for support, have been harvested at least once during the ongoing and the two previous marketing years shall be eligible, provided that the relevant harvest declaration has been notified to the competent authority of the concerned Member State.
5. Vineyards that were subject to a restructuring and conversion operation supported under Article 58(1), first subparagraph, point (a), of Regulation (EU) 2021/2115 during the previous five financial years shall not be eligible for national payments for grubbing up.
6. The maximum amount of national payment per hectare of productive vineyard grubbed up shall not be higher than
the sum of:
(a) the direct cost of the operation of grubbing up, to be set by the Member State on the basis of representative standard costs; and
(b) a compensation amount of no more than 100 % of the loss of revenue of one year set at the same level than the annual loss of revenue set by the Member State for the purposes of Article 59(1), third subparagraph, point (b), of Regulation (EU) 2021/2115.
7. The information concerning parcels grubbed up with the support of the national payment referred to in paragraph 1, including information on the year when the parcel was grubbed up and the identification of the beneficiary, shall be kept in the vineyard register referred to in Article 145 of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013 for at least 10 marketing years following the one on which the parcel was grubbed up.
Article 5 Coherence with other support measures In Member States that have already implemented national payments for distillation or green harvesting in accordance with Article 3 for three or more marketing years in the period of the five previous marketing years in the same geographical area and for the same categories and colours of wine, the approval to make use of national payments for an additional year, for the same geographical area and wines concerned, shall be conditional to the Member States adopting the following
measures:
(a) make use of national payments for grubbing up of productive vineyards in accordance with Article 4 or include in their CAP Strategic Plans the permanent grubbing up intervention referred to in Article 58(1), first subparagraph, point (o), of Regulation (EU) 2021/2115, for at least the two following marketing or financial years, respectively; and
(b) the laying down in their CAP Strategic Plans, for the intervention under Article 58(1), first subparagraph, point (a), of Regulation (EU) 2021/2115, of the specific agronomic, viticultural or other conditions provided for in Article 58(1), second subparagraph.
ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg_del/2026/2093/oj 5/7EN OJ L, 16.9.2026 Article 6 Request for approval Member States wishing to make use of national payments referred to in Article 1 shall submit to the Commission a request for approval which, for each measure for the relevant geographical areas, wine categories and colours, includes at least the
following information: — as regards distillation and green harvesting:
(a) the geographical scope, wine categories and colours, or vineyards producing such wines, targeted by the measure as appropriate;
(b) any additional eligibility conditions and possible priority criteria set at national level for wine, vineyards and beneficiaries;
(c) the duration of the measure, including the provision of the start and end dates of the measure;
(d) the relevant information demonstrating the occurrence of market circumstances referred to in Article 3(2), points (a), (b) and (c);
(e) the expected volume of eligible wine to be distilled or the expected area to be subject to green harvesting;
(f) the total budget foreseen and the maximum amount of national payment per hectolitre of distilled wine or per hectare subject to green harvesting; — as regards the grubbing up of productive vineyards:
(a) the geographical scope, wine categories and colours targeted by the measure;
(b) any additional eligibility conditions and possible priority criteria set at national level for vineyards and beneficiaries;
(c) the duration of the measure, including the provision of the start and end dates of the measure;
(d) the relevant information demonstrating the occurrence of market circumstances referred to in Article 4(2), points (a), (b), (c) and (d);
(e) the expected area of vineyards to be grubbed up and its equivalent volume of potential wine production;
(f) the total budget foreseen and the maximum amount of national payment per hectare.
Article 7 Notifications
1. Member States whose request for national payments referred to in Article 1 have been approved shall inform the Commission, by 30 September in respect of the previous marketing year in which they are applied, of:
(a) the quantities of wine withdrawn from the market for each measure of distillation implemented in accordance with Article 3, per category and colour of wine, as well as the volumes of alcohol produced from the wine delivered and distilled and the corresponding amount of national payments granted;
(b) the areas that have benefited from national payments for green harvesting implemented in accordance with Article 3 per category and colour of wine, and the corresponding amount of national payments granted;
(c) the areas that have benefited from national payments for grubbing up of productive vineyards implemented in accordance with Article 4, per category and colour of wine, and the corresponding amount of national payments granted.
6/7 ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg_del/2026/2093/ojEN OJ L, 16.9.2026
2. The notifications to the Commission referred to in paragraph 1 shall be made in accordance with Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/1183(4).
Article 8 Entry into force This Regulation shall enter into force on the day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.
Done at Brussels, 10 July 2026.
For the Commission The President Ursula VON DER LEYEN
(4) Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/1183 of 20 April 2017 on supplementing Regulations (EU) No 1307/2013 and
(EU) No 1308/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to the notifications to the Commission of information and documents (OJ L 171, 4.7.2017, p. 100, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg_del/2017/1183/oj).
ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg_del/2026/2093/oj 7/7