ESPR: How to Anticipate and Influence Future European Legislation for Sustainable Fashion
Textiles, the first sector to be covered by ESPR
Carrière-Pradal highlighted that this is the reason why France has moved so quickly on its Climate, Agec, and fast-fashion laws, in the hope of influencing the Commission's work on ESPR. The choice of the textile sector to take the lead would officially be due to a multi-sector assessment of existing impacts and possible improvements. Two points on which textiles would stand out.
"I have a slightly different vision," confides Clarisse Reille. "Fashion is generally not taken seriously. What's more, when we look at the impact of the sector, we see that it's mainly due to ultra-fast-fashion, which has every interest in spreading its problems throughout the sector, to dilute its responsibility. And public authorities tend to be more attentive and benevolent towards sectors whose customers are mainly men. This analysis, which is less rationalist, is shared by the heads of federations."
The head of Defi stresses above all that France, through its existing legislation and the joint work of its federations, will have a say in the final shape of the ESPR. This is confirmed by Carrière-Pradal: "Until recently, France was the only country to have an eco-organisation to manage the end-of-life of textiles, Refashion. But it's also important to bear in mind that, even if the French State has more weight than others in Brussels, the Commission still has an obligation to listen to other players."
The reference document produced by Defi with the support of the various French textile-clothing federations is freely accessible in the Studies section of the forum's portal.
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