Mr Nico van Opstal (the Netherlands), President of the Association, specified the importance for the attachés in charge of agricultural issues to better understand international organisations and that it was necessary to develop this type of direct relationship.
Mr Jean-Marie Aurand, who has been assigned to Madrid as an agricultural attaché during his career, emphasised the relay work carried out by the ambassadors in addition to their role in promoting the viticultural realities of their country. He indicated that he wished for this initiative to be updated and expanded.
The purpose of this document is to recall and assemble in a single document some important elements of guidance from the OIV activities related to biotechnology in vitiviniculture. This study does not attempt to cover in detail all the issues and facts, but rather to contextualize the overall potential impact of the application of biotechnology in the wine sector. Its purpose is to provide a factual basis for potential discussion.
This document has not been submitted to the step Procedure for Examining Resolutions and cannot in any way be treated as an OIV resolution. Only resolutions adopted by the Member States of the OIV have an official character.
Different approaches regarding vitiviniculture products derived from modern biotechnology are expressed.
This document includes in particular definitions adopted by Codex Alimentarius and by the Cartagena protocol on biosafety as well as the resolutions adopted by the OIV on this issue.
Any approach implemented should be consistent with other texts already adopted by different intergovernmental organisations.
The Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Vassil Groudev, played on the analogy between Thracian gold and the gold that flows in Bulgaria’s cellars, positioning his country among those on which a long history of wine growing has conferred a special magic, a special spirit, and inviting us to discovery in the salons of the OIV, but even more so in the landscapes and vineyards of his country.
Hosting this event, the Director-General of the OIV, Jean-Marie Aurand, stressed the importance of Bulgaria’s vine and wine sector, gate of Europe between the Balkans and the Black Sea, with five wine producing regions that offer a wide range of terroirs in which native vine varieties (Gamza, Mavrud, Dimyat, Rubin or Pamid) flourish alongside international varieties developed more recently as part of the restructuring of the wine sector.
M. Aurand added that he was delighted with the contribution of Bulgaria’s Executive Agency for Vine and Wine to the work of the OIV and expressed the hope that new initiatives could be developed.
