Textile industry

16/03/2009

High Level Group Report and First Recommendations June 2004

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

AN OVERALL STRATEGY

The textiles and clothing industry of the EU is the world’s largest textile exporter and ranks second in clothing exports. However, depressed internal demand and rising imports, coupled with an inability to export to many closed external markets make it incumbent upon the authorities in the enlarged European Union to send strong signals to the industry that its concerns remain at the forefront of the EU policy Agenda.

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.

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.