FEDUSTRIA

Fedustria is de Belgische federatie van de textiel‐, hout‐ en meubelindustrie.

Lobbying Activity

Meeting with Kris Van Dijck (Member of the European Parliament)

3 Jun 2025 · Competitiveness of EU textile, woodworking and furniture industries

Meeting with Wouter Beke (Member of the European Parliament)

20 Mar 2025 · Versterken Europese concurrentiekracht

Meeting with Kathleen Van Brempt (Member of the European Parliament) and AGORIA and

21 Jan 2025 · Rondetafel industrieel beleid, clean industrial deal en blik op komende wetgeving

Response to Evaluation of the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement

23 Oct 2024

Tijdens de eerste maanden na de inwerkingtreding van de vrijhandelsovereenkomst kreeg Fedustria van haar leden veel vragen over het te vermelden oorsprongscriterium op het bewijs van oorsprong. Het vermelden van het oorsprongscriterium wordt enkel gevraagd in de vrijhandelsovereenkomst EU-Japan en niet in andere vrijhandelsakkoorden. Er was hier veel onduidelijkheid over zowel langs de kant van de Belgische exporteurs als langs de kant van de Japanse klanten al dan niet op vraag van hun douane. Ondertussen is deze onduidelijkheid weggewerkt. Er werden ons recent geen problemen met bewijs van oorsprong of andere problemen bij uitvoer naar Japan gemeld.
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Meeting with Sara Matthieu (Member of the European Parliament)

14 Jul 2023 · EU policies (ESPR, CSDDD, ...)

Meeting with Kathleen Van Brempt (Member of the European Parliament) and VERBOND VAN BELGISCHE ONDERNEMINGEN / FEDERATION DES ENTREPRISES DE BELGIQUE and

17 Jan 2023 · Roundtable discussion - A stronger Europe in the World

Response to Illegal logging – evaluation of EU rules (fitness check)

18 Feb 2020

Fedustria is the Belgian sectoral federation that defends the interests of the textile, wood and furniture industries, including timber import companies. The fight against illegal logging is vital for the continued existence of our sector. Both Fedustria and its individual members are fully aware of this and, to this end, are taking all necessary steps to fight illegality. That sis also why we fully support initiatives such as FLEGT (EU Forest Lax Enforcement, Governance and Trade Action Plan) and the EU Timber Regulation (Ref. EU 995/2010). Fedustria is member of both CEI-Bois (European confederation of the woodworking industries) and ETTF (European Timber Trade Federation) and fully supports their input to this roadmap. In addition, we want to express our point of view to the EU Roadmap on EUTR and FLEGT. FLEGT The FLEGT action plan was adopted by the EU in 2003. Since then, 15 tropical countries implemented or started negotiating voluntary partnerships agreements (VPA’s). However, up to now there is only one country that has a working FLEGT system in place, namely Indonesia. Fedustria asks the EU to speed up the process and to support more producing countries to establish FLEGT systems. Moreover, EU also needs to promote FLEGT and to increase the awareness about this system in the EU. This is the only way to motivate producing countries to keep investing in VPA and forest governance. European Timber Regulation (EUTR) Fedustria supports the EUTR, but has some fundamental concerns: - There is no clear guidance on what is exactly expected from the operators. It is essential that the necessary guidelines and recommendations are provided, which give the companies the opportunity to improve their due diligence system. We have repeatedly indicated that the objective of the EUTR should not be to punish, but to work towards a better system with all stakeholders in a constructive manner; - the way in which the EUTR is approached differs from country to country. It is essential to create a level playing field; - Fedustria is an advocate for more inspections, but only on condition that it is clear what is expected of the operators and that the inspections are fair. We have observed that the same (major) players are continually subject to inspections, while many small-scale operators slip through the net. However, it is precisely the major players who have developed and continuously refine good due diligence systems; - Companies being registered in a European country, custom clear goods in another European country than their registered country. As a consequence, they are not being controlled by the Government of the importing country, since they are not registered with any legal set-up (imports are done through fiscal representation) and furthermore they are also not controlled by their governments in their home countries, since there are no registries of any imports; - Finally, Fedustria supports the idea of extending the scope of the EUTR to all wood products currently outside the scope. In short, we call for the objective, uniform and correct application of the EUTR. As a federation for both timber importing and timber processing companies, we would like to emphasise once again that we have every interest in managing forests in a sustainable manner, where legality is the absolute basis. After all, our future depends on the protection and expansion of forests and their ability to supply timber as a raw material and lifeblood to industry.
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Response to Commission Regulation amending the CLP Regulation (EC) 1272/2008 and correcting Commission Regulation (EU) 2018/669

5 Feb 2019

Wij betreuren het voorstel om titaandioxide in te delen als carcinogeen. In onze sector, meubel en hout, wordt titaandioxide veel gebruikt in de papierlaag voor het aanbrengen van decor's op platen en laminaatvloeren. Wij hebben de indruk dat deze indeling eerder gebaseerd is op het feit dat titaandioxide aanleiding geeft tot stofvorming en dat stof in het algemeen kankerverwekkend kan zijn en dus niet typisch voor titaandioxide. Indien titaandioxide heringedeeld zou worden, dan zou dit een einde betekenen voor de circulaire economie. Zaagresten, overschotten van laminaat of beklede platen zouden ingedeeld worden als gevaarlijk afval waardoor herverwerking onmogelijk wordt en dit terwijl er helemaal geen gevaar is dat titaandioxide als stof zou vrijkomen.
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Meeting with Jos Delbeke (Director-General Climate Action)

16 Jun 2016 · Biomass