The dialogue on the EUDR, which has required so much energy and mediation efforts without a satisfactory solution for Italian tanning, is far from closed. Because Brussels is playing out future challenges of the EUDR, which is agreeable in its goals of combating deforestation, but not in the way it involves bovine hides. “This is why I strongly wanted the establishment of a much more important presence for Cotance“, said Fabrizio Nuti, president of UNIC – Italian Tanneries, during the July 1 general meeting (in photo). We want this to become a guiding light for leather product associations and natural products such as cashmere and wool, with which we share common problems.”
EUDR’s battle
UNIC’s assembly was an opportunity to summarize the association’s activities while in a complex juncture. Speaking of international relations and industrial urgencies, mentioning the EU was inevitable. “For the past four years my energies have been absorbed in opposing the measure. But leather is still not excluded“, are Nuti’s words, adding that there is a need for ” at least a substantial simplification of bureaucratic burdens, or the EUDR will have devastating effects on our industry”.
Activities
Since 2021, UNIC has written letters and met with MEPs and representatives of all political forces, and then officials, technicians, lobbyists. Several parliamentary questions have been asked in Brussels, and the association commissioned specialized law firms to dig deeped, organized 18 seminars and webinars, sent over 120 communications to politicians and over 50 to member companies. A relentless and unceasing activity. “On June 3 in the European Parliament, we presented a study by the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna showing that leather isn’t a driver of deforestation”, Nuti says. “On June 16, I met with Council Vice-President Antonio Tajani, who wrote to President Ursula Von der Leyen and Trade Commissioner Šefčovič the same day.
Future challenges come through Brussels
The goal is to prevent such incidents (poorly written regulations and on unsound premises) from happening again. “We must remain vigilant and know the intentions of our representatives in advance. So that we can guide them”, UNIC’s president continues, “obviously with all the absolutely transparent tools at our disposal, toward measures that do not jeopardize our very survival. I want to be clear: we are not against actions to combat deforestation, or against regulations to protect the environment, health, safety, but we don’t want to be assigned blames we don’t have”.
The world around us
Dario Fabbri, geopolitical analyst and editor of Domino magazine, helped to better understand the Trumpian Trade War, which isn’t an attack on globalization, but a redefinition of it at the expense of the EU and China. While Federico Brugnoli, CEO of Spin 360, explained the premise of the Leather Leaders project: “A small and excellent group of brands and supplier companies that, in a necessary collaboration among the supply chain, drafts the protocol for achieving green goals and establishes a platform for sharing innovation and knowledge”.
Presence
Giovanna Ceolini (president Confindustria Accessori Moda), Agostino Apolito (Assomac general manager) and Maurizio Maggioni (UNPAC national secretary) attended the assembly. With them were Michele Matteoli (president Consorzio Concieratori Ponte a Egola), Riccardo Bandini (president Associazione Conciatori di Santa Croce sull’Arno) and Roberto Giannoni (mayor of Santa Croce sull’Arno). Mirko Balsemin (president of the tanning section of Confindustria Vicenza) and Sonia Tosoni (secretary of FILCTEM CGIL) also brought their greetings.
Read also:
- Italy’s government to the EU: “Excluding hides and leather or greatly simplify the EUDR”
- “Leather is natural and circular, EU don’t forget it”
- Deforestation: the tanning industry lays out the facts in Brussels
