Debate: The need for an ambitious EU Strategy for sustainable textiles
Date: THURSDAY, 10 MARCH 2022
Speaker: Virginijus Sinkevičius
Language: EN

Worst of all, the trends are moving in the wrong direction. We throw away clothes faster than ever before, and we use them for ever shorter periods of time. Most of them end up in landfill or incineration. Around the world, less than one percent of all textiles are now recycled into new textiles. We need to encourage and support the sector to do better. In the EU, it employs 1.5 million people in more than 160 000 companies, most of which are SMEs. In 2019, the annual turnover was EUR 162 billion. When we talk about textiles, we are talking about everything from the automotive and agriculture sectors to home furnishings, clothing and medical equipment. The largest share of our textiles consumption is fashion. We are a major destination for textiles and garments. In 2019, the EU was the second largest global importer of clothing and, in the first 15 years of this century, world production of textiles more or less doubled. The consumption of clothing, footwear and household textiles happening in Europe creates the most impact in other regions of the world, where the majority of production takes place. For textile supply chains, the pandemic brought considerable disruption and many citizens realize that the sector needs radical change.  As all other sectors, textiles needs to build back better. We need to help the sector to do that. We need to build in more circularity and sustainability, and that’s vital to address climate change, to help win the fight against pollution and to reduce the pressure on nature and reverse biodiversity loss. We need to do it while preserving and creating growth and decent jobs, respecting human rights.  At the end of this month, as announced in the circular economy action plan, the Commission will adopt an EU strategy for sustainable and circular textiles. It will be a strategy to strengthen innovation and reduce the environmental footprint, a strategy to boost the market for sustainable and circular textiles, a strategy for increasing textile reuse and repair, boosting circular business models and addressing fast fashion, and a strategy that can also boost the competitiveness of sustainable textiles industries. Social aspects, including working conditions, will also be considered.  The strategy builds on extensive consultations and input from stakeholders, who supported its development through thematic workshops and online public consultation. At its heart is a new approach to design. We want textiles to be more durable, recyclable and easier to reuse, repair and upgrade. That way, we reduce the consumption of resources, we extend the lifespan of textile products and we boost the recovery of valuable materials and components at the end-of-life stage. It means better material efficiency, a reduced environmental footprint and a longer textile-usage life. Acting at the design phase makes it easier to choose materials free of hazardous substances and made of recycled fibres. It also means that microplastics can be designed out of the process. For all these reasons, textiles will also be a key value chain in the upcoming sustainable product initiative. As promised in the European Green Deal, we are acting to ensure that sustainable products become the norm. It is part of our drive for a climate-neutral Europe by 2050, but more sustainable and circular design alone will not be enough. We need to reduce consumption altogether, in particular in the fashion sector. That’s why we find it especially important to boost the uptake of new business models. These include, for example, more circular models like reuse, resale, repair on demand, manufacturing and product as service. In our sustainable product initiative, we will propose another powerful tool, which will be useful for textiles, the digital product passport, which will improve access to information about product characteristics. That way, all economic actors can make decisions that are better informed. It will enable better transparency and traceability for the value chain, which is particularly important for textiles. Action on the supply chain needs to be coupled with initiatives to empower consumers, and that’s why the Commission is also preparing a legislative proposal on green claims in order to fight greenwashing and to ensure that claims are based on reliable, verifiable and comparable information. We aim to present that later this year.  We also need to take into account the international dimension. What we do internally also has an impact on operators in partner countries, and that’s why our strategy ambition is, together with our partner countries, to tie sustainable and circular textile value chains globally. Also important for the textile value chain is the legislative proposal on corporate sustainability due diligence recently adopted by the Commission. It comes with a corporate sustainability due diligence obligation to prevent and mitigate actual adverse impacts for sustainability. When it comes to achieving our social, environmental and climate goals, the textile sector plays a pivotal role. But to play that pivotal role, the sector needs to change. The strategy we are presenting will help drive that change. It means new ways of doing business, different patterns of production and consumption, products that are durable and repairable, and citizens who care, refashioning and sharing the textiles they wear.  It’s time to redefine the textile economy in Europe and with our partner countries. We are counting on the support of the European Parliament and we look forward to your views on the strategy we propose. With citizens, youth and stakeholders working together, it’s time to rethink the structure of textiles. It’s time to refashion fashion.