The European Commission presented the Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA) on Wednesday. In the presence of leading representatives of the Committee of the Regions (CoR), Executive Vice-President Stéphane Séjourné presented an initiative that is intended to fundamentally strengthen the EU’s competitiveness against major powers such as China.
Strategic sectors
The draft law proposes to increase the share of the manufacturing industry in the EU’s gross domestic product (GDP) from currently around 14 percent to 20 percent by 2035. It focuses on heavy industries such as automotive, batteries, construction, chemicals, steel and transportation. The textile sector does not appear to be part of the plan for now.
Séjourné emphasized that the implementation of the IAA depends on a “location-specific competitive strategy”. Local authorities manage a significant proportion of public investment. They must use their respective regional strengths to position Europe as an innovation center.
To speed up this process, Member States will be required to set up a fully digital approval system to standardize procedures. In the future, stricter requirements will apply to foreign investments of more than 100 million euros in strategic sectors. Foreign companies with a large market share in an industry will in future have to work with European partners in order to gain access to the market. Eligibility for local state aid is also made more difficult by new minimum requirements for components manufactured in the EU.
No measures for the textile industry
It is remarkable that the textile industry is not taken into account in the debate. It is an essential pillar of the local economy in several European regions. Portugal and Turkey are examples of textile centers with growth prospects.
According to a 2024 overview report by Euratex, the sector generates annual sales of over 170 billion euros. It also exports goods worth 64 billion euros to countries outside the EU. With more than 1.3 million employees – mainly in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) – the textile industry is one of the most labor-intensive industries in Europe.
Similar to the automotive industry, China controls large parts of the entire textile value chain. This ranges from the production of raw materials such as silk and cashmere to industrial manufacturing and the takeover of Western fashion brands.
The decision to only marginally consider the textile industry fits with last year’s policy. Important laws such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) were weakened at the time by the so-called “omnibus regulation”. This regulation relaxes the obligations for fashion companies under the pretext of reducing “administrative complexity”.
The IAA still needs to be approved by the European Parliament. In the meantime, the textile industry is lobbying intensively to be recognized as a “strategic sector”.
This article was created using digital tools translated.
FashionUnited uses artificial intelligence to speed up the translation of articles and improve the end result. They help us to make FashionUnited’s international reporting quickly and comprehensively accessible to a German-speaking readership. Articles translated using AI-based tools are proofread and carefully edited by our editors before they are published. If you have any questions or comments, please email [email protected]
