Latest news with #Pan-Euro-MediterraneanConvention
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
EURATEX, Tunisia partner to boost textile sector competitiveness
The MoU was signed by Euratex and Tunisia's FTTH at the Monastir Technopole in Tunisia. It underlines a mutual commitment to closer industrial cooperation with a focus on sustainability, investment, and trade integration within the revised Pan-Euro-Mediterranean Convention framework. The agreement is said to be a pivotal move towards fostering a structured dialogue and concrete collaboration between the two textile sectors amid shifts in global supply chains and a rising emphasis on sustainable production practices. EURATEX president Mario Jorge Machado explained: "Europe and Tunisia share a long-standing partnership. While our systems may differ, our industries are deeply complementary. In a time of regulatory transformation and increasing environmental ambitions, working together is essential. "This MoU offers a practical framework to improve competitiveness, drive innovation, and reinforce the resilience of our shared textile ecosystem." The agreement also signals a larger intent to rejuvenate and bolster industrial collaborations throughout the Mediterranean region. Tunisia has emerged as a reliable and strategically positioned ally in the shifting geopolitical and economic landscape, according to EURATEX. By advocating for a Mediterranean model of collaboration that emphasises proximity, mutual trust, and shared economic benefits, the MoU with FTTH aligns with the broader goal of fortifying regional supply chains, reducing dependence on far-flung sourcing networks, and promoting nearshoring tactics for the European textile industry. These measures are said to be not just economically imperative but also crucial for fostering a sustainable and resilient European textile industry. The latest agreement is also said to reinforce Tunisia's vision to evolve into a circular, and competitive textile hub while promoting investment and industrial synergies with its European counterparts. The country's textile and clothing industry has over 160,000 jobs and encompasses upwards of 1,600 active companies. In 2024, the nation's exports of textiles and clothing to the EU amounted to €2.5bn ($2.8bn), underscoring its key role as a nearshoring partner. The signing ceremony was attended by the Monastir Governor, Tunisia's Minister of Industry, the EU Ambassador to Tunisia, and business representatives from both regions. In November 2024, EURATEX entered into an MoU with Association Marocaine des Industries du Textile et de l'Habillement (AMITH) to enhance cooperation and foster collective growth within the textile and clothing sectors of Europe and Morocco. "EURATEX, Tunisia partner to boost textile sector competitiveness" was originally created and published by Just Style, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site.
New European
30-01-2025
- Business
- New European
Dominic Grieve and Caroline Lucas: 'We need to fight Farage – and Faragism'
The prime minister's reluctance to engage on the question of Europe predates his arrival in Number 10. Last year Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, broke ranks by questioning Starmer's 'code of silence' over rejoining the EU and, in July, less than 24 hours before polls opened for the General Election, Starmer told reporters that Britain would not rejoin the bloc in his lifetime. At Davos last week, the trade chief Maros Sefcovic referred to the idea of Britain joining the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean Convention (PEM). For Lucas this is, finally, 'a step in the right direction'. 'During the referendum, I'd come from 10 years in the European parliament, so I was under no illusion about some of the downsides of the way the EU worked,' says Lucas, the former MP for Brighton and leader of the Green Party. But five years down the line, she feels that Britain's post-Brexit settlement needs to change. 'It would show that the status quo isn't resolved. That we can still fix things, but to do that we have to move in a closer direction,' she says. But Grieve believes the government is stuck in limbo. 'We have a Labour government, who I'm quite sure is well-intentioned and wants to get the economy going. But then they will not face up to the elephant in the room, which is that it's going to be very hard to do those things as long as the trade barriers with our closest neighbours continue,' he says. The former attorney general for England and Wales gets the impression that Labour are scared to focus political debate back on Brexit after watching multiple Conservative governments tear themselves to shreds over the issue. 'I said in 2020 that Boris Johnson would destroy the Conservative Party as an effective force and it has been 100% correct. I said that Brexit would deliver no benefits and I haven't seen one,' says Grieve. For Grieve, it was hardly a surprise that Labour won the election, as it was the only obvious alternative to a Conservative government that had 'run out of steam'. 'They had run out of any ideas or, frankly, any reason for governing at all,' he says. Grieve and Lucas want to use the movement they now lead as a means to rebuild relations with the EU and to rejoin. This aim, they feel, is a vote-winner for Labour. 'It would give a bit of hope to people too, which is in short supply right now. But the more cross-party voices we have, then the more likely it is we'll see a bit of leadership on this and move in that direction,' says Lucas. Grieve believes that some of these voices also exist within his former party, 'despite its current condition'. 'There are Conservative backbenchers – and even frontbenchers – who know that leaving has done a lot of damage,' Grieve says. When I ask who those MPs are, he is reluctant to name them. 'Ah, I might do them terrible harm and that's the difficulty. After all, Robert Jenrick campaigned for me in 2016, although I may not be a very good guide as to current points of view,' he adds. According to Grieve, his former party is 'absolutely obsessed' with Euroscepticism, but warns that if they continue down that road, the Conservatives will 'become indistinguishable from Reform'. For Grieve and Lucas, there is, at the moment, one major difference between the two parties; the former have policies while the latter do not. 'Farage has, in policy terms, nothing to offer. Absolutely nothing. It's actually very difficult, currently, to identify a Reform policy,' says Grieve. He adds: 'Farage's difficulty, in a nutshell, is that while even he realises that Tommy Robinson is unacceptable as a member of his party, the unpleasant reality is that Tommy Robinson's supporters are the very people who voted for him.' It's in this respect, Lucas explains, that it's not only Farage that must be tackled, but Faragism. Photo: European Movement UK In a recent interview with The Sunday Times , Grieve and Lucas's predecessor, Michael Heseltine, expressed equal distaste for the Reform leader. 'Farage is about economic failure and immigration. It's the worst stirring of the racial pot. You have to have answers,' said Heseltine. When it came to what to do about the MP for Clacton-On-Sea, he was just as unrelenting: 'Destroy him'. Grieve feels the same, only with a caveat. 'I agree with Michael,' he says. But by 'destroyed', he thinks Heseltine meant 'challenged'. That way, Farage would essentially become ineffective. British politics is, currently, beset by anger. 'There's a willingness to stir the pot,' says Grieve and the one clutching the spoon is Farage, who is only content when he is 'identifying enemies' and 'pitching them against each other'. Heseltine identified Farage's 'mischief' but for Grieve and Lucas, the underlying fears Farage plays on – migration and the sense that ordinary Britons are losing out – must be addressed by the government. Once Labour satisfies voters in this area, Farage's standing will suffer. His tactics must also be challenged for what they are and at the same time, adds Lucas, the media must also act. 'You can't just sit back and hope it's going to go away. But the media's got a bit of a role here because it frustrates me over and over again. The BBC, on this particular issue, is one of the worst. It just allows interviews with Farage to be entirely on his terms, whether that's on his relationship with Donald Trump or his relationship with Elon Musk.' In doing so, Farage is being given a free pass to dominate stories, while his party evades any real scrutiny, especially on points of policy. 'The media have got to be a hell of a lot more savvy than they are,' says Lucas. So, for the co-presidents of the European Movement, Farage has got to go. But where? Is it possible that Farage and the Conservatives will strike a deal? 'It depends on what happens to the party. There are some people who would never accept going in with Reform which would mean, I'm afraid, that the party is split,' says Grieve, but still, he can see it happening. In this eventuality, the Conservative party would become a 'new' Reform, losing their roots and securing a 'win' for Farage while the more centre-right dissenting voices are pushed out. Yet, for Grieve and Lucas – a common misconception must be corrected. 'I don't think you should lump Leavers of 2016 with being Farage supporters in 2025,' says Grieve. 'That's a mistake.' Similarly, Lucas's project, Dear Leavers, focused on having an honest discussion with those who voted for Brexit, rather than isolating them in a separate political camp. There has to be a distinction between a contemporary Farage and those who endorsed his views during the Brexit campaign. 'After all,' says Grieve, 'this is somebody who ranted about how he was prevented in Parliament from asking questions about the Southport murders when there were sound reasons why the Speaker prevented him from doing so. The government doesn't control the prosecutorial process. These are the basic building blocks of what makes the UK a free country with the rule of law and he has a total disregard for that.' Interestingly, Lucas also featured in a radio interview on LBC with Jake Berry around the same time. The former Conservative party chairman was trying to make the case that the government had deliberately arranged the date of the Southport trial to coincide with Trump's inauguration. 'That's not how it works. It's just bonkers. Ministers have no power or ability to regulate court process, absolutely none. But he wouldn't back down on it and well, that's what worries me,' she says. When I ask Lucas whether she thinks Berry really believed that, she's not sure what's worse; that or the alternative that he was trying to stir up controversy. In the same Sunday Times interview, Heseltine is asked whether he believes he'll live to see Britain rejoining the EU and he answers curtly: 'At my 90th birthday I invited all those present to join me for the 100th. Yes, of course I believe that.' I ask Grieve and Lucas if they have the same sense of faith as their predecessor and their responses are similar, albeit framed differently. 'I have a sort of quiet confidence,' says Grieve. 'The idea some of my former parliamentary colleagues had, that somehow Britain leaving was going to destroy the EU, is not going to happen.' He's uncertain whether the move will take 10, 15 or more years, but knows it must start, progressively, with building links with the continent, including the single market and, as Lucas points out, the European Environment Agency. ' Faith that rejoining will happen is a strange word to use in this context,' she smiles. 'But, I do have every expectation that it will happen.'
New European
28-01-2025
- Business
- New European
Are Frost and Hannan hellbent on going back into the EU?
The revolution, they say, devours its own children. And now we can report that the Brexiteers are turning on a pair of sopping wet Remoaners discovered lurking within their own ranks… David Frost and Daniel Hannan! The pair have surprised colleagues by remaining sanguine about the UK possibly joining the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean Convention (Pem), a tariff-free trading scheme which harmonises rules of origin within the EU and beyond to make it easier to export goods. The UK's joining was mooted last week by the EU trade commissioner Maroš Šefčovič, who said Brussels would be open to the move, with chancellor Rachel Reeves saying she was 'happy' to look at any proposal to improve trade between Britain and the bloc. The proposal has sparked predictable fury among many senior Brexiteers – Nigel Farage described it as 'self-destructive' while shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel wrote in the Daily Express that it meant Keir Starmer was 'hellbent on dragging us back in [to the EU] through the back door' and that Labour was 'pursing [sic] with ideological gusto their determined plan to reverse our Brexit freedoms'. But others are more relaxed. Frost, Boris Johnson's Brexit negotiator who has spent the interim years rubbishing his own work, has said: 'We didn't see it as raising any issue of principle, but we equally didn't consider it to be particularly in UK interests.' It did not, though, he claimed, cut through any of the Conservative red lines. Hannan, the self-styled 'brains of Brexit' who campaigned for the hardest departure possible, has also said he had no objection, writing in the Times today that 'I find myself disconcerted by the purity spiral that has led fellow Eurosceptics into a mindless dismissal of anything with 'Euro' in the title'. 'Freer trade, even if only marginally freer, is a good thing,' he writes. 'If the EU wants this scheme, should we not at least see what it is prepared to offer in exchange? This shouldn't need spelling out, but Brexit was about democracy, not isolation.' And even GB News, in its online report, was forced to concede that 'trade experts have supported this assessment, indicating the deal would not amount to a fundamental realignment of the UK's trading relationship with the EU.' What is it about 17.4 million voters that they don't understand? You lost – get over it!
Yahoo
27-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Lord Heseltine brands Brexit a ‘pack of lies' and calls for Britain to rejoin EU
Michael Heseltine says Brexiteers sold Britain a 'pack of lies' and called for the UK to rejoin the European Union. The former deputy prime minister said the UK should be 'at the heart of Europe' and that returning to the bloc would be 'in the best interests of a generation of young British people'. Speaking ahead of Friday's fifth anniversary of Britain's official departure from the EU, Lord Heseltine told the BBC: 'The creation of the single market was Margaret Thatcher's greatest achievement. It was a culmination of the determination that war should be eliminated from the landmass of Europe.' He added: 'I was rather keen on these ideas. And I am appalled by Brexit, I don't believe for an instant that we should accept the verdict of a pack of lies that was paraded by various people in order to persuade people we had to sever our relationship with Europe.' His intervention came as Downing Street confirmed Sir Keir Starmer will snub the fifth anniversary of Brexit, with the prime minister instead focusing on his ongoing reset of relations with the EU. The prime minister has no plans to celebrate or mark the key milestone, his official spokesman confirmed, adding that he was focused on 'making Brexit work for the British people'. 'We are looking forward, not backwards… that is why we are resetting our relationship with Europe, to strengthen ties and deliver growth and security for the UK,' the spokesman added. Downing Street said the reset includes taking advantage of the UK's position on AI and financial services, as well as highlighting a new security pact with the EU. Sir Keir has been pursuing a closer relationship with the EU, including considering joining a tariff-free trading scheme with Europe after the EU, since entering Downing Street in July. On Monday, Lord Heseltine was pressed on how far he would advocate the prime minister going in rebuilding Britain's ties with the bloc. He said: 'Straight down the line, I would go back into Europe, to the heart of Europe. 'And do you know why? Because I believe it is in the best interests of a generation of young British people.' Lord Heseltine also dismissed critics of a second referendum on the EU, asking 'What is democracy about?'. 'This question of, 'we voted in 2016, the deal is done', what is democracy about?' he said. He added: 'I have lived through generation after generation where Conservatives have opposed Labour nationalisation programmes, we undid them. We said we would undo them, despite the fact they had a mandate. 'Why can't you have another referendum, put it to the British people?' On Sunday, Rachel Reeves said the UK was 'absolutely happy' to look at joining a tariff-free trading scheme with Europe after the EU opened the door to British membership. The chancellor indicated ministers will consider signing up to the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean Convention (PEM), as it would with any 'constructive ideas' consistent with its 'red lines' about not returning to the EU. Labour has ruled out rejoining the customs union and single market, or returning to freedom of movement, but committed to seeking closer ties with Brussels as part of a 'reset' in UK-EU relations. EU trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic last week suggested Britain could join the PEM, which allows for tariff-free trade of goods across Europe, as well as some North African and Levantine nations. Speaking to broadcasters over the weekend, Ms Reeves said she was 'happy to look' at the prospect of the UK joining the scheme with Europe. The Chancellor told Sky News' Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips: 'It was really interesting to see Maros Sefcovic this week suggest the UK might be welcome in that pan-European and Mediterranean customs framework. 'We are absolutely happy to look at these different proposals because we know that the deal that the previous government secured is not working well enough. 'It's not working well enough for small businesses trying to export, it's not working well enough for larger businesses either. 'We're grown-ups who admit that, whereas the previous government said there were no problems at all. 'And where there are constructive ideas we are happy to look at those, as long as they're consistent with the red lines we set out in our manifesto.'
Daily Tribune
27-01-2025
- Business
- Daily Tribune
UK ‘happy' to look at joining EUMed trade pact: finance minister
Finance minister Rachel Reeves said yesterday the UK government is 'happy' to consider joining a pan-European and North African customs scheme, as part of its much-touted reset of EU ties. Her comments follow the European Union's trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic telling the BBC earlier this week that Brussels 'could consider' admitting the UK to the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean Convention (PEM). The arrangement allows for tariff-free trade of some goods across Europe and North Africa and is separate from the EU customs union, which the UK left in 2020 as part of its Brexit divorce. The new Labour government -- which took power last July -- has ruled out rejoining the EU's single market or customs union and sent mixed messages in response to Sefcovic's apparent invitation. Two ministers said Thursday that London was not currently seeking to join the PEM, while Prime Minister Keir Starmer's spokesman refused to commit either way. However, in an interview with Sky News on Sunday, Reeves suggested the government was open to exploring the option. 'It was really interesting to see Maros Sefcovic this week suggest the UK might be welcome in that pan-European and Mediterranean customs framework,' she said. 'We are absolutely happy to look at these different proposals because we know that the deal that the previous government secured is not working well enough.' Referring to the previous Conservative administration which delivered Brexit, Reeves added: 'We're grown-ups who admit that, whereas the previous government said there were no problems at all. 'And where there are constructive ideas we are happy to look at those, as long as they're consistent with the red lines we set out in our manifesto.'
