Overview
- Agriculture Commissioner Christophe Hansen said the EU will release €40 million from the agricultural reserve to finance crisis distillation that converts surplus wine into industrial alcohol.
- French producers had sought €80 million, and Hansen said the EU support could be complemented by national funding from France.
- Roughly one million hectolitres may be withdrawn from the market with compensation, according to reporting, in a bid to stabilise prices.
- The Commission also confirmed a one‑year suspension of duties on certain nitrogen fertiliser imports, excluding Russia and Belarus, a step expected to save about €60 million for European farmers and manufacturers.
- Hansen is presenting the measures at the Salon de l’Agriculture as farmers protest EU policies, while stressing that CAP funding will not be reduced and citing pressures from geopolitics and tariffs in the United States and China.