Is the EU investment and promotion support to the wine sector well managed and are its results on the competitiveness of EU wines demonstrated? : Special report No 09/2014

EU funds are available to support investments in wine production and to promote EU wines in non-EU countries. In this report, the Court examines whether this support for the wine sector is well managed and whether it has improved the competitiveness of EU wines. During its audit the Court found that the need to provide investment aid to the wine sector, in addition to the aid already available under rural development policy, had not been demonstrated. Promotion support was often used to consolidate market share rather than to win new markets. Moreover, the Court identified promotion operations which would have been undertaken anyway, even without public funding. Finally, the impact of the assistance on the competitiveness of EU wine producers was not always demonstrated. The Court has provided the Commission and the Member States with recommendations on how to remedy the weaknesses mentioned in the report.