The state wine estate in Saxony, Schloss Wackerbarth, may be privatised soon. The federal state's financial commission has criticised the economic situation of the operation.

The state financial commission has criticised the fact that operating a wine estate is not an essential function of the state, and has recommended privatising the business. The estate has run up losses running into double-digit figures in millions of Euros, and the supervisory authority, the state development bank of Saxony, had been unable to prevent this. Now the state, and specifically the taxpayer, must foot the bill. However, for budgetary and legal reasons, the state of Saxony may not guarantee to cover losses in future, and in addition it is possible that Brussels may intervene specifically because there is no definition of which duties are in the sphere of interests of the etate.

The estate was taken over by the development of Saxony in 1999, and caused quite a stir with its newly built modern cellar complex. (WF)