Presentation of the OIV

Main additions of the new agreement:

• Consensus is the normal method whereby the General Assembly shall adopt draft resolutions of a general, scientific, technical, economic or legal nature, and for the creation or discontinuance of Commissions and Sub-Commissions. The same is true for the Executive Committee when it exercises its functions on these issues.
  
• The missions of the new organisation are modernised and adapted to enable the organisation to pursue its objectives and exercise its activities as an intergovernmental organisation of a scientific and technical nature of recognised competence for its work concerning vines, wine, wine-based beverages, grapes, raisins and other vine products.
  

In the framework of its competence, the objectives shall be as follows:

a) to inform its members of measures whereby the concerns of producers, consumers and other players in the vine and wine products sector may be taken into consideration;

b) to assist other international organisations, both intergovernmental and non-governmental, especially those which carry out standardisation activities;

c) to contribute to international harmonisation of existing practices and standards and, as necessary, to the preparation of new international standards in order to improve the conditions for producing and marketing vine and wine products, and to help ensure that the interests of consumers are taken into account.

These missions are laid out in a five-year Strategic Plan. French, Spanish and English (to which are added, upon the request of the concerned countries, Italian and German) are the official languages of the OIV.

OIV - Mission

In the framework of its competence, the objectives of the International Organisation of Vine and Wine shall be as follows :

a) to inform its members of measures whereby the concerns of producers, consumers and other players in the vine and wine products sector may be taken into consideration;

b) to assist other international organisations, both intergovernmental and non-governmental, especially those which carry out standardisation activities;

c) to contribute to international harmonisation of existing practices and standards and, as necessary, to the preparation of new international standards in order to improve the conditions for producing and marketing vine and wine products, and to help ensure that the interests of consumers are taken into account.

To attain these objectives, the International Organisation of Vine and Wine’s activities shall be:

• to promote and guide scientific and technical research and experimentation
  
• to draw up and frame recommendations and monitor implementation of such recommendations in liaison with its members, especially in the following areas: les conditions for grape production, oenological practices, definition and/or description of products, labelling and marketing conditions, methods for analysing and assessing vine products
  
• to submit to its members all proposals relating to: guaranteeing the authenticity of vine products, especially with regard to consumers, in particular in connection with the information provided on labels, protecting geographical indications, especially vine- and wine-growing areas and the related appellations of origin, whether designated by geographical names or not, insofar as they do not call into question international agreements relating to trade and intellectual property, improving scientific and technical criteria for recognising and protecting new vitivinicultural plant varieties
  
• to contribute to the harmonisation and adaptation of regulations by its members or, where relevant, to facilitate mutual recognition of practices within its field of activities
  
• to help protect the health of consumers and to contribute to food safety: by specialist scientific monitoring, making it possible to assess the specific characteristics of vine products, by promoting and guiding research into appropriate nutritional and health aspects, by extending the dissemination of information resulting from such research to the medical and healthcare profession.