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Unrelated, but France's power in EU results in some weird stuff as well. In order to protect their own wine manufacturers, they've succesfully lobied for a total ban on new wineyards in whole of EU.

When Croatia was scheduled to join EU in July 2013., in the run up to that date its government gave out fat subsidies to anyone who converted their land into a wineyard, because once they joined the EU, game over.

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That's a rule that...

a) was introduced in 1725, and carried into the EU at the time of EU formation.

b) was repealed in 2008

c) while it's true france has lobbied to re-introduce the law since then, they have failed so far.

Thanks for sharing, do you have any links about it? My comment is based on what I was told when I visited Croatia couple years ago and asked about all the newly-planted wineyards along the coast.

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