Memo: VP Tajani: Fashion industry deserves our full support

The European fashion and high-end industries are global leaders accounting for 10% of European exports. European Commission Vice President Antonio Tajani met with high-level representatives of some of the Europe's main fashion companies in Brussels on 12 February 2013 to discuss concrete actions for the European fashion industry.

The Commission intends to reinforce the growth and competitiveness of the European fashion industries with a number of short-term actions. To this end, Vice-President Tajani discussed key issues and asked for the views of CEOs of fashion and high-end industries on the following actions to:

+ Ensure that education and training institutes provide students with required skills through better use of existing alliances, councils and working groups as well as more interaction between industry and institutes;

+ Foster creativity, e.g. through match-making between new designers and small producers (WORTH pilot project);

+ Foster innovation, e.g. through interoperable e-commerce tools (eBiz project);

+ Ensure the protection of intellectual property, e.g. through raising awareness about fake goods;

+ Seize opportunities for international trade, e.g. through participation in Missions for Growth;

+ Form a regulatory framework to sustain growth, including for example the labelling of authentic leather.

Vice President Tajani also discussed with participants how to better combat counterfeiting which has become a real danger to the industry's growth and employment.