European Commission overview of textiles and clothing industry

The textiles and clothing sector (or "T/C sector") is a diverse and heterogeneous industry which covers a wide variety of products from hi-tech synthetic yarns to wool fabrics, cotton bed linen to industrial filters, or nappies to high fashion. This diversity of end products corresponds to a multitude of industrial processes, enterprises or market structures.

The T/C sector is an important part of European manufacturing industry with a turnover in 2002 of over €200 billion produced in roughly 177,000 enterprises employing more than 2 million people - a figure which increases to 2.7 million after EU enlargement in May 2004. Textiles and clothing account for around 4% of total manufacturing value added and 7% of manufacturing employment in the EU-15.

From the European Commission website.

COP 15 - European metalworkers on the road from Copenhagen

For the European Metalworkers Federation climate change is a dangerous reality which demands a social response at international as well as European, national and regional/local and company levels. We believe that a drive towards new industrial strategies based on low carbon technologies and products can offer opportunities but also challenges for the future of industrial workplaces in Europe.

EFFAT's view on sustainable development

Sustainable development seeks to "meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” in the sense of balance between economic, social and environmental elements. Still, increasingly rapid global changes, from the melting of the icecaps to growing energy and resource demand, are challenging this objective.