Brussels, 14 June 2005

Ladies and Gentlemen, colleagues,

It is a pleasure to participate in this meeting of the High Level Group on Textiles and Clothing.

The European Textile and Clothing industry is facing tough challenges, as I am certain you have already discussed earlier today.

It is only by meeting these challenges head on that the Textile and Clothing Sector will be able to improve its present position in the global marketplace.

As the Communication on “Textiles and Clothing after 2005” and the “Vision 2030 Document” testify, the way forward for the sector is through transforming the European textile sector from a resource intensive to a knowledge intensive, highly innovative sector with high added value products and services.

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At the launch of the European Technology Platform for Textiles and Clothing in December last year, I already stressed the importance that we focus our efforts on knowledge to ensure sustainable growth and jobs in Europe for the future.

It is only by raising the knowledge capacity of our firms, that we can secure our competitive advantage be based on the best new products and processes in the world.

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Being one of the oldest sectors in the history of industrial development, the Textiles and Clothing industry is often referred, as “traditional industry”, and a sector belonging to the so-called “old economy”. This couldn’t be further from the truth. The industry has made tremendous efforts in the last years to invest in new productive assets, to streamline operations and to intensify their innovation activities.

The European Textiles and Clothing Industry has undergone significant restructuring and modernisation efforts increasing productivity throughout the production chain and re-orienting production towards innovative, high quality products.

This has allowed the European and Clothing Industry to fight back and preserve its leading edge in the global market place.

I believe that the EU textile industry can thrive if it continues to invest in new production processes and materials, in innovative design and manufacturing systems and in training and skills.

To achieve such a transformation, investment is needed in technological innovation that would assist industry in its transition from a resource intensive to a knowledge intensive industry.

The Communication on “Textiles and Clothing after 2005” goes in the right direction when recommending three distinct actions for research and innovation:

• Firstly, the support of flagship projects with the aim to develop break-through technologies. This flagship approach is a strategic response by the industry in its efforts to modernise apparel manufacturing in Europe. It will contribute to end the era of mass manufacture of textile products and to move towards a new service era characterised by customisation, personalisation, and based on intelligent production, logistics and distribution.
• The second action envisages support for research to facilitate high added value textile products. It will help to expand textiles into many sectors and application fields as their first choice of material (such as transport systems, construction, medical applications and consumer electronics).
• The third action relates to the setting up of the European Technology Platform to facilitate the modernisation of the sector and the move away from traditional products like commodity fibres, filaments and fabrics towards speciality products manufactured by flexible high technology, knowledge based processes.

The transition of European textile industries has indeed already started with the launch of the European Technology Platform for the future of Textile and Clothing.

The “Vision 2030” document provides a sound basis for the development of the Textiles and Clothing Strategic Research Agenda that will transform industry.

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The European textile industry’s strategic effort to modernise apparel manufacturing in Europe became very visible recently when a large number of high quality research projects were submitted under the 6th Framework Programme for Research and Development. These research activities, representing a total EU funding of 41 million Euros, will clearly contribute to the modernisation of the sector.

Again, I am convinced that the transition of textile industry is on its way when looking at the sector’s considerable efforts to better integrate all research efforts.

In this context I would like to mention a few examples such as like the Integrated Project LEAPFROG which is financially supported by the European Commission. It develops breakthrough technologies to improve the productivity of the apparel manufacturing.

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In particular, it develops radical solutions in cutting and sewing systems and provides holistic solutions which could serve as a model for the transformation of textile and clothing apparel manufacturing into a productive knowledge based industry.

I would also want to mention the R&D activities supported by the Commission related to eco-efficient processes and novel processes for example the combination of nanotechnology and plasma surface engineering for a new generation of hyper functional textiles.

Further examples of the support of high added value textile research projects are projects dealing with technologically advanced textiles with applications in medical, automotive, aviation and aerospace industries.

Before I close I should like to elaborate on the perspectives of research for the textiles sector that will be offered by the Seventh Research Framework Programme.

The Priorities for Research in the Strategic Research Agendas of the European Technology Platforms will be important building blocks in helping to shape European Research. They will certainly provide valuable ideas for the detailing of the Commission’s proposal for the Seventh Framework Programme.

The strong industry involvement in platforms is particularly important for identifying the research priorities for collaborative research covered by Theme 4 (Nanotechnologies, materials and new production technologies) of the 7th Framework Programme.

It aims at developing high added value products and services. In particular, the research domain “Integration of technologies for industrial applications“will certainly benefit from the input developed by the Strategic Research Agenda on Textiles and Clothing.

Closing remarks

Industrial leadership in the integration of technologies and the new knowledge they represent into new business models and products are necessary in order to speed up the processes of transformation of the European textile and clothing industry.

With a strong commitment from the stakeholders, the Commission will continue to support the research initiatives of the Sector and in particular the Technology Platform.

We have worked closely, with our colleagues of DG Enterprise and Industry to facilitate the transformation of European industry and we will continue to do so.

Let me conclude by saying that I intend to do my best to implement our joint vision.

Thank you for your attention.

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