The Limits to Unified Claims against European Agricultural Policies: A Comparative Analysis of Wine Producers in France and Romania

Abstract

In 2008, a reform of the European Common Market Organisation (CMO) for wine was introduced. It consisted in helping ‘uncompetitive producers’ to step out of the wine market. The aim was to offer the ‘competitive producers’ the pos- sibility of increasing their vineyards and developing large-scale production patterns on the model of the New World. The article focuses on the defense of the smallest wine producers invited to give up their traditional activities. It analyses the current dynamics in the departement of Aude in France and the judet of Vrancea in Romania – two areas where there is a huge gap between poor producers and owners of large vineyards who could benefit from the reform. Stemming from the theoretical framework worked out by Pierre Bourdieu, the emphasis is laid on the objectification mechanisms by which some organizations managed to unify wine-growers’ claims in the past. The comparison between case studies drives to the conclusion that these mechanisms have not been activated since 2008, either because the reform of the CMO makes them inefficient or because wine-growers by-pass the new policies by other means.