COTANCE holds meeting with European Commissioner
09/07/2009
A delegation of the leather industry in the European Union, led by COTANCE president, Nalle Johansson, held a meeting on July 3 with Günter Verheugen, vice-president of the European Commission with responsibility for industry and enterprise policy.
COTANCE said afterwards that the meeting had consisted of an open and frank exchange on the current economic situation and the outlook for the future.
The COTANCE delegation was formed by Mr Johansson, past-president and current vice-president Jean-Claude Ricomard (Tanneries Roux, France), vice-president Jaume Alvira (Colomer Group, Spain), vice-president Salvatore Mercogliano (UNIC Group, Italy), Peter Crack (Charles F. Stead & Co, UK), Gustavo Gonzalez-Quijano, secretary general of COTANCE, and Fulvia Bacchi (UNIC Group).
Nalle Johansson gave an introduction to the European leather industry, stressing the importance of of the leather value chain in terms of jobs. He indicated that about 1 million jobs in Europe depend on the sector and that the EU market for leather and leather products is worth around €60 billion a year.
European tanners are at the root of this wealth, he said, and are leaders in the global leather industry with a share of around 15-17% of worldwide sales of leather. President Johansson commented that the tough business situation in the global economy at the moment has eroded the sector’s turnover by 20-30%, but he made it clear that COTANCE would not seek subsidies from the European Commission.
He said that the sector is demonstrating its resilience in times of adversity and that it is confident of being able to emerge stronger from the current economic downturn.
COTANCE secretary general, Gustavo Gonzalez-Quijano, said there were four areas in which the EU could help the European leather industry improve its competitiveness. The first, he said, would be to make it easier for businesses in the leather sector to access credit in the banking system. He also said that the EU should support the industry by setting up a task force in the Commission to address specifically the trade barriers the leather industry faces in securing access to some markets and to raw materials from some sources. His third observation was that the Commission should offer better guidance on funding opportunities for research and development and innovation in the leather sector. Lastly, he suggested that the Commission should help make it clearer to consumers when they are and are not buying genuine leather, using the regulatory framework to remove the risk of what he called "misdescriptions", as happens in the textile sector.
Mr Gonzalez-Quijano added that there was a need to make sure REACH legislation does not result in "a distortion of competition between domestic and imported products".
Commission vice-president Verheugen said in response that he welcomed the sector’s approach to the issues it is facing and indicated what the EU has already done to alleviate the adverse effects of the economic downturn on business and the economy in general. He took note of the points raised by COTANCE and assured the delegation that he would take a personal interest in launching measures along those lines. He asked for a follow-up meeting after the summer break to evaluate developments.
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