The updated EU Industrial Strategy highlights the need to accelerate the green and digital transitions of EU industry and its ecosystems. To that end, it proposes cooperation between industry, public authorities, social partners and other stakeholders.
Following the EU strategy for sustainable and circular textiles, we invited stakeholders to join us in the co-creation of a transition pathway for the textiles ecosystem. Through this inclusive process, we identified what the digital and green transitions and increasing resilience mean for the textiles ecosystem, and what specific actions and commitments need to accompany the transition.
The sections below will guide you through the different steps of the co-creation and co-implementation process of the Textiles Ecosystem Transition Pathway.
We invite all EU textiles ecosystem stakeholders to submit their pledges to help make the textiles ecosystem greener, more digital, resilient and competitive via the new EU Textiles Ecosystem Platform. This platform is designed to support stakeholders across the textiles ecosystem and offers
- easy access to key information
- a space to connect and engage in discussions with other industry stakeholders
- networking and peer-learning opportunities
- interactive workshops and webinars, and more!
Stakeholders are encouraged to register and join early to help steer the platform. You can sign up at any time!
To initiate the co-creation process, the European Commission prepared a staff working document outlining possible scenarios for a transition pathway towards a more resilient, sustainable and digital textiles ecosystem.
This document invites stakeholders to reflect and contribute to the scenarios by 2030 and lists key enablers for the transition of the textiles ecosystem. It invites stakeholders to work together and propose specific actions, commitments and investments.
To gather the inputs from textiles ecosystem actors, the European Commission launched an online consultation, which ended on 15 June 2022. In total, it received 103 responses. These were essential in identifying which key areas and topics the future Textiles Ecosystem Transition Pathway should focus on.
The next step of the co-creation process involved a series of workshops, organised in September 2022. They focused on sustainability, digitalisation, resilience and the social dimension of the textiles ecosystem. A concluding workshop held in October 2022 attracted 140 participants representing industry federations, companies, academia, NGOs, regional/national public administrations, trade unions, etc.
Conclusions from the final workshop:
The final stakeholder consultation report is also available.
The Textiles Ecosystem Transition Pathway was published on 6 June 2023. The policy report includes some 50 specific actions to support the twin transitions and the long-term resilience and competitiveness of the textiles ecosystem. The actions are divided into eight building blocks, each representing 1 key aspect of the transition.
See the Textiles Ecosystem Transition Pathway policy report.
A key objective of the co-implementation process is to collect commitments from stakeholders. In June 2023, the European Commission published a call for commitments for stakeholders in the textiles ecosystem.
The purpose of the call was to collect commitments on the concrete actions that stakeholders could take in order to bring forward actions identified in the transition pathway.
On 1 March 2024, the first set of pledges and commitments from stakeholders was published.
Following the creation of the EU Textiles Ecosystem Platform, a digital space designed to support stakeholders across the textiles ecosystem towards increased sustainability, digitalisation, competitiveness and resilience, the collection and publication of pledges now continue via the EU Textiles Ecosystem Platform.
A stakeholder event was held on 4 June 2024 to discuss the future of the textiles ecosystem.