An Extraordinary Council meeting of the European Union is currently taking place in Granada, and the opportunity was taken by Euratex President Alberto Paccanelli (in the picture) and CIE President Jose Vte Serna to call on the EU Presidency to develop a new competitiveness strategy that can revitalise European industry and ensure its competitiveness for decades to come.
This means bringing together trade, energy, state aid and sustainability policies into a single integrated and comprehensive approach that can support a strong and modern European manufacturing industry.
To consolidate a strong industrial structure in Europe, the Union should, according to Euratex, ensure the supply of clean energy at competitive costs; support innovation and foster the necessary talent pool; and be more decisive in achieving international parity on sustainability, based on the European model.
“In recent years,” Paccanelli and Serna write in a note, “we have witnessed the implementation of inconsistent and conflicting objectives in trade, energy, industrial and sustainability policy. While the circular economy promised to be the recipe for a competitive industry of the future, the likelihood of pushing EU industry out of the market and directing investment elsewhere than in Europe is very high. If this approach continues in the coming years, the result will be a de-industrialised Europe, dependent on foreign imports. Such a Europe would be more exposed to geopolitical turmoil, without the possibility of offering its citizens its vision of peace, prosperity and a healthy environment’.
Then the request: ‘It is crucial that Europe pursues more coherent policies with the competitiveness of national industry at the centre. All manufacturing industries should be covered, including the textile industry, given its importance in providing essential products and applications to our society. A first impactful action that can be taken in this direction would be to broaden the scope of the Net-Zero Industry Act (NZIA) to include the textile and garment industry,’ he said.
In the references, besides clothing, there is a wide range of sectors in which textiles play an essential role: automotive, aviation and shipbuilding, building and construction, and personal protective equipment.