The main European organisations representing the textile, clothing, footwear and leather sectors have called on the new policymakers of the European Union to "safeguard” the industry and "keep good industrial jobs in Europe”.

The social partners, in the case of the footwear sector represented by CEC (European Footwear Confederation, of which APICCAPS is a member) and the signatories of the Antwerp Declaration for a European Industrial Deal called for a greater European commitment capable of guaranteeing quality employment.

Although the European TCLF sectors provide over 1.5 million jobs in the EU (Textiles and Clothing: 1,300,000, Footwear: 222,000, and Tanning and Leather: 34,531) and have a combined turnover of over 200 billion euros (Textile and Clothing: 170 billion euros, Footwear: 23.2 billion euros, and Tanning and Leather: 7.3 billion euros), they "continue to face a range of challenges, including fierce global competition, high energy prices, an ageing workforce, and a huge increase in new legislation”. These challenges are particularly severe as "over 99% of companies in the TCLF sectors are SMEs”. The European social partners have therefore called for "increased focus and commitment in the next EU mandate to ensure that the TCLF sectors can become green and digital while remaining competitive on the global market and that no region, company or worker is left behind”.

According to the CEC, Cotance (Confederation of National Associations of Tanners and Dressers of the European Community), Euratex (which represents the textile industry) and industriALL Europe, it’s important to "ensure a just transition for our industries and workforce”. "The TCLF sectors are under pressure to meet the green and digital twin transitions while competing on a fierce global market and facing a decreasing consumption”, they recall in a statement. By way of example, "while the scale of industrial policy and disruptive state subsidies elsewhere, in particular in the US and China, has dramatically increased the European competitive disadvantage to those countries, the EU must develop a robust industrial strategy that leads to retention and creation of quality industrial jobs across Europe”. Therefore, "an industrial policy must not only be about supporting ‘clean tech’ investors, but also supporting the transformation of existing industrial assets in the founding industries, which are essential parts of the strategic value chains”, stress the European industrials.

At another level, recalling that "the green and digital transformation has never been more challenging for both companies and workers”, it’s necessary to ensure "a just transition framework, which ensures the effective anticipation and management of employment and skills; provides security for companies and employees faced with these industrial transitions, underpinned by the strong and stable involvement of social partners at all levels”.

In this context, the availability of financial resources "is necessary to stimulate industrial investment in innovative green and digital technologies and production methods in Europe, with guarantees to ensure the retention and creation of quality jobs, while ensuring a fair distribution of the wealth created”. To that end, it’s important to establish "strict criteria on access to EU funds should promote a fair transformation of our industries, focusing on social cohesion, quality employment and promotion of social dialogue”.

The TFLC European industries also argue that "re-skilling and up-skilling policies must be put at the core of a renewed European Industrial Deal”, highlighting that the "social partners have a critical role to play in anticipating and managing skills needs and in organising up-skilling and re-skilling”.

CEC, Cotance, Euratex and industriAll Europe call as well for the promotion of a strong social dialogue. "The role of social dialogue is of upmost importance when an industrial transformation is required, whether via collective bargaining, skills analysis and planning, or the implementation of new regulations”, they emphasise. Sectorial social partners will therefore "play a significant role in advocating for a favourable regulatory environment for business, which enables shaping mutually agreeable working conditions and wage setting through common positions and declarations” and the establishment of "collective bargaining systems in many Member States”.

Finally, the social partners believe that it’s essential "to ensure a sensible, stable and coherent regulatory environment for our industries”, although "efforts should be made to improve the rules of the Single Market and uniform enforcement of rules by EU customs and market surveillance authorities to better streamline and articulate regulations”, and "access to energy and raw materials”. "Access to green and affordable energy for the TCLF sectors has become even more important since the energy crisis, with large amounts of decarbonised energy remaining central to the green transition. As such, the TCLF Social Partners call for additional measures to ensure that this becomes a reality to enable TCLF manufacturing to become more sustainable while competing with imports from other regions which benefit from subsidised energy sources”.

Free and fair trade
The TCLF Social Partners insist on "free and fair trade for a sustainable global market”. To this end, it’s crucial to "prevent low-cost products being dumped on the open EU market with no respect for international labour law or EU environmental and marking and labelling standards”.

Therefore, they call for specific measures, "including using, where necessary, EU trade defence instruments, EU trade support measures, increased monitoring of third countries which benefit from Free Trade Agreements or the EU Generalised Scheme of Preferences and strengthening market surveillance to establish a level playing field”. "This is essential to ensure that the TCLF sectors can become more sustainable while facing tough global competition. In this regard, it is necessary to point out that circa 80% of TCLF products consumed in the EU internal market are imported, mainly from Asia”.

The European industrials also believe that "it’s necessary to increase the demand for green TCLF products made in Europe, noting that these products can often be more costly to produce”.