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Parliamentary Group

DRAFT RESOLUTION NO. 501 /X/4.

Recommends to the Government measures to recover the sustainability of the House of Douro

The genesis of the House of Douro, which arose in the early 30 of the last century,

gave it a mixed nature, of protection of the Douro's winemakers face to the

fluctuations in the market and speculative action by exporters and skills

delegated by the State to ensure the quality of the wine produced.

This dual nature of the House of Douro was maintained throughout a regional history in

that the House of Douro has intervened as a regulator in the face of the unequal situation of the winemakers

duriers, setting minimum prices for the sale of the grapes, absorbing surpluses from

production and at the same time monitoring and advising in a perspective of

quality assurance of the product that is vital for the region.

In the frame of this role of creating a strategic reserve and marketing of

surpluses, management mistakes were made by the House of the Douro that the

led to the crisis in which it currently stands. The beginning of the 90

corresponded to a period of large production surpluses, estimated at 70000

generous wine kites a plus. In parallel, the withdrawal of tutelage functions and from

regulation of regional viticulture, between 1995 and 2003, after the ruinous business of purchase

of the participation in the Real Company Velha contributed to generate the descalabro

financial from the House of Douro.

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The House of Douro has seen itself in the contingency of resorting to bank credit and for years

managed to cope with this commitment in large part thanks to the sale of lots

removed from the market that allowed it to pay the service of the debt.

In 2003 the Decree-Law No. 277/2003 of November 6 on the use of the authorization

legislative granted by Law No. 42/2003 of August 22 sought to define the role

institutional of the House of Douro " valuing its associative and defence strand of the

winemakers " and at the same time cementing their public nature through the

allocation of skills such as: " a) Maintaining and updating the registration of winemakers and

of all the vine plots of the Demarcada Region of the Douro in respect of the standards

that comes, to be issued by the Institute of Douro and Port Vests; b) Indicate the

representatives of the production on the interprofessional board of the Institute of the Wines of the

Douro and Porto; c) Supporting and encouraging wine-making production, in connection with services

competent, and provide support and technical assistance to winemakers, notably in the

domain of integrated protection and integrated or biological production modes; d)

collaborate with the Institute of Douro and Port Wines in the implementation of measures

decided by the Government ... "

Those cited are just some of the competencies that the diploma confers on the House of

Douro, but are exemplificative of the reinforcement of the public service component

conferred to the House of Douro always under the strategic orientations of the Institute of the

Wines of the Douro and the Port.

The fact that the Decree-Law n. 277/2003 limit the possibility of the acquisition of wines by the

House of the Douro for the maintenance of a "historical stock" vetting its intervention in the

marketing of wines and musts, represented, on the other hand, the loss of a field

of realization of revenue that only aggravated the financial situation of the House of Douro.

In reality, the House of Douro has been abetting a very extensive range of fields from

intervention and in the face of the problems that the Douro Demarcada Region (RDD) faces,

it lacks the definition of a strategic direction for duriese winemaking,

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uncompromised with the fields of pressure exerted by the exporters, capable of

consolidate a model of interaction between the various cooperatives in the sector,

responsible for training and information.

The clarification of the institutional nature of the Douro House in no way confrontational

with the own supervision competences of the Douro and Port Wine Institute

(IVDP). The IVDP competes to establish the necessary bridges between production and the

trade, ensure that the control and defence of designation of origin meet

ensured, encourage best practices to ensure the quality of production and

support your marketing.

However, the most recent years have corresponded to a process of disturbance in

relation to the definition of the own role of a public body that is part of the

direct administration of the state as it is the case of the IVDP that it has to defend and

promote the denominations of origin and at the same time encourage their

marketing and the role of an institution such as the House of Douro.

From the point of view of the legal framework it should be noted that the decree-law n.

277/2003, as it is above reproduced, confers to the House of Douro the responsibility of

"to maintain and update the registration of winemakers and all vine plots". The

same time the Organic Law of the Institute of Douro and Port Wines, in its

article 12 confers on the direction of the IVDP the competence of: " making use of the enrollment of the

vines able to produce wine from the Port and wine of the Douro, the updating of which competes with the

House of the Douro " There is between these two diplomas an explicit conjugation of the point of

view of the competences of one and another body.

However, in the most recent years the IVDP has progressively come to occupy the function

performed by the House of Douro in relation to the updating of the enrollment, until in

January 2008 rescinded with the House of Douro, the Protocol on the Cadastro and has

coming to recognize new producers, not enrolled in the House of Douro, in a process of

true reversal of roles.

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This performance implies, in what the Cadastro relates to, there is a doubling of resources

as the House of Douro has made investments over the years in improving its

technical capacity investments these that are now totally devalued. Has

also objectively the result of emptying out of content the role that the House of

Douro can and should play in the region, thus being installed confusion over

what the institutional place of each of these organisms: House of Douro and IVDP.

It is therefore placed on the need to make a clarification of what is meant

duty to be the very place of the House of Douro. There is a whole wide space for the

intervention of the House of Douro as an associative structure of winemakers at the level of the

technical support with a view to rebuilding vines and applying for projects that

are associated, support from the socio-professional point of view and from the point of view of

balance in the relationship of forces vis-a-vis the marketer entities.

This is a role that should be combined with the public service component in the plan

of the producers ' certification and the guarantee of the quality of the wine. This is the field where

deserves to be clarified the border of the role of the House of Douro and the IVDP. To the IVDP

compete for a supervisory role by nature of being a body of the administration of the

State, the House of Douro competes in a role of advice and fulfillment of the

guidelines from the IVDP.

The liberalisation of vine planting and therefore the abolition of a regulation on the

vine planting licensing of wine producing wine with geographical denomination

would only result in serious injury to the competitiveness of a product living

essentially from your guarantee of genuineness and it is in the plan of that guarantee that the House

of the Douro must play a determining role.

In the wake of these recitals the Left Bloc proposes to the Assembly of

Republic to direct a recommendation to the Government in the direction of clarification of

skills and support for the financial sanitation of the House of Douro.

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The Assembly of the Republic resolves to recommend to the Government:

1. May take the initiative to carry out, in agreement with the House of Douro one

financial sanitation plan that allows the House of Douro to optimize the

existing resources and generate the revenues needed to support your

appointments and competences.

2. To proceed to a clarification that balises the specific competences of the

House of the Douro in the provision of public service, particularly in what it says

respect to the enrollment of winemakers in the RDD enrollment.

Assembly of the Republic, May 28, 2009

The deputies and Deputies of the Left Bloc