EU sustainable textiles rules need a rethink, says Euratex
04/01/2024
As part of this, it is requesting that the EU Strategy for Sustainable Textiles should be approached with “economic realism”.
It said: “The EU Strategy for Sustainable Textiles is pushing our sector towards new business models with a lower environmental footprint. To realise that ambition, no less than 16 regulatory proposals are on the table, each of them with a different timetable, managed by different departments of the European Commission.
“Euratex is committed to sustainability, but asks for economic realism. This set of new regulations needs to be coherent, enforceable, feasible and applicable for SMEs, and not push textile companies out of the market. Moreover, some member states are moving faster and some legislations will be decided at national level, creating fragmentation of the market. Such scenarios will hamper Europe and its possibilities to grow.”
In the manifesto, Euratex is also pushing for “smarter” EU industrial policy, incentives to attract younger employees and investment in innovation and digitalisation.
It also suggests the European Commission should incentivise the demand for sustainable textiles, creating standard requirements and fiscal incentives. Public authorities should also implement green public procurements.
Alberto Paccanelli, Euratex president, said: “These elections are a turning point for the future of Europe and its industrial base. While some regions of the world are already taking measures to support their industry, Europe has been lagging behind. We need a clear vision which bring us towards a greener and wealthy future. We need to reconcile these two objectives and bring with us major global partners, because this transformation cannot be done by one region only.”
The textile and apparel industry in Europe includes 192,000 companies employing 1.3 million workers with a turnover of €167 billion and over €67 billion of exports.
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