EURATEX, the European Association of Textile and Apparel manufacturers, published a position paper to support the EU Commission’s ambition to revise the Textiles Labelling Regulation.
In the paper, EURATEX retains that the Regulation has served its purpose overall and delivered its overarching objectives, namely providing helpful information to the consumer on the properties of the textile products.
Nevertheless, in the light of technical progress, societal changes and the evolution of the regulatory framework for textiles following the adoption of the EU strategy for sustainable textiles, a revision of the Regulation is necessary to ensure regulatory coherence.
The suggested changes
- Taking into account that the adoption of the textiles strategy will generate 16 new pieces of regulation applicable to the textile and apparel sector, EURATEX believes that the scope of the Labelling Regulation should focus on two main pillars: fibre composition and care instruction.
- In addition, the elements of digitalisation, leather and fur authenticity should be considered as complementary aspects that – if integrated into the legal text – should improve the overall performance of the regulation in providing information to the consumer.
- Finally, the revision should take into account that textiles manufactured in the EU are sold both on the EU market as well as on foreign markets. The revised regulation should, therefore, consider the main elements of the labelling requirements of the main destination markets of the EU exports, in particular the US and the UK.
