中文title: “European Leather and Footwear Sector Demands Tougher E-Commerce Rules and Invests in Workforce Skills” original_url: “https://internationalleathermaker.com/european-leather-sector-backs-new-skills-and-tougher-online-rules/” source: “International Leather Maker” publish_date: “2026-07-21” seo_description: “The European Footwear Confederation backs new regional skills partnerships and joins 88 organizations urging tougher e-commerce enforcement to stop non-compliant products entering the EU.” seo_tags: [“European leather”, “CEC footwear”, “TCLF skills”, “EU e-commerce regulation”, “METASKILLS4TCLF”, “European Product Act”, “workforce development leather”] seo_slug: “european-leather-sector-skills-ecommerce-rules-2026”
European Leather and Footwear Sector Demands Tougher E-Commerce Rules and Invests in Workforce Skills
The European leather and footwear industry is fighting a two-front battle: closing regulatory loopholes that allow non-compliant products to flood the EU market while simultaneously building the skilled workforce needed for the green and digital transition. Both efforts, spearheaded by the European Footwear Confederation (CEC), reveal an industry that is no longer content to simply react to policy — it is actively shaping it.
Closing the E-Commerce Floodgates
The numbers are staggering. An estimated 5.9 billion low-value e-commerce parcels entered the EU in 2025, many of them containing products that fail to meet European safety, environmental, ecodesign, and intellectual property standards. For European leather and footwear manufacturers who invest heavily in compliance, this represents not just unfair competition but an existential threat to the region’s manufacturing base.
The CEC has joined 88 industry, consumer, and environmental organizations in a joint letter to Executive Vice-President Stéphane Séjourné demanding that the forthcoming European Product Act require every product sold in the EU to have a clearly identified economic operator established within the EU or European Economic Area.
The coalition is going further still, calling for online platforms selling products from non-EU sellers to assume legal responsibility where no other accountable economic operator exists. This would fundamentally shift the liability equation that has allowed platforms to profit from non-compliant goods while European manufacturers bear the cost of playing by the rules.
Building the Workforce of Tomorrow
On the skills front, the Erasmus+ METASKILLS4TCLF project has announced the creation of 10 new regional public-private skills partnerships officially recognized by the European Commission. These partnerships — covering Portugal’s Norte region, Sweden’s Borås, Poland’s Małopolska, and Spain’s Valencian Community for the leather and footwear sector — bring together businesses, education providers, and public authorities to support upskilling and reskilling.
The initiative goes beyond traditional vocational training. The European Virtual Fashion Campus is developing resources including e-books, quizzes, augmented reality applications, and virtual reality learning environments focused on digital and circular fashion. A web-based tool to validate migrants’ skills and improve labor market integration is also in development — addressing both the skills gap and the demographic challenges facing European manufacturing.
The Research Imperative
The CEC has also joined 86 European associations in calling for significantly increased funding for FP10, the EU’s next Framework Programme for Research and Innovation covering 2028-2034. Citing the Draghi report’s warning that Europe is falling behind the US and China in innovation, the signatories argue that industry-led collaborative research must be strengthened to maintain European competitiveness.
Taken together, these three initiatives — e-commerce enforcement, workforce development, and research funding — represent a coordinated push to ensure that Europe’s leather and footwear sector remains viable in an increasingly competitive global landscape. Whether Brussels delivers remains to be seen, but the industry is no longer waiting passively for answers.
Source: International Leather Maker — European leather sector backs new skills and tougher online rules, based on CEC and METASKILLS4TCLF announcements, July 2026.
