The European Commission and the French Ministry of Agriculture: A Case of shared Empowerment on the Wine Sector

Blancaneaux, Romain
(2019) European Rural History Organisation (EURHO) Conference — Location: Paris (10.September.2019)

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Since the first half of the 20th century, the regulations for Denomination of Origin(DO) wines had been directly set by professional representatives sitting in theNational Council of Designations of Origin (CNAO), entitled to set the conditions of production by decree, without the ministry of Agriculture - or the governement - being able to modify them. However, in the wake of a European reform of qualityfoodstuff products as of the 2000’s, the ministry of Agriculture put an end to this. How have changes of EU regulations given the opportunity for agents of the French ministry of Agriculture to take control on a very autonomized agricultural subsector?One can go beyond classical grids of analysis, and cease to oppose the national levelto Europe, or the European level to the national one. The European space mainlyprolongs national struggles, and can offers more opportunities than constraints,allowing some national actors to seize them, and reverse power struggles orconsolidate them.We draw two conclusions. First, over the long period, a process of empowerment of Brussels’ bureaucracy is at work to unify the standards of markets. Second, this process of empowerment of Brussels’ bureaucracy (or certain sectors of this bureaucracy) is less accompanied by a weakening of the national administrations than by a reorganization of the power struggles in their centre, allowing the French ministry of Agriculture to take control on DO wines which, before, escaped to its grip.
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Blancaneaux, R. (2019). The European Commission and the French Ministry of Agriculture: A Case of shared Empowerment on the Wine Sector. European Rural History Organisation (EURHO) Conference, Paris. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/110609