
Face à l’explosion de la surproduction textile et à ses conséquences environnementales, sociales et économiques, j'adresse une lettre, cosignée par plusieurs eurodéputé.es, à la Commission européenne pour soutenir la proposition de loi française visant à encadrer la fast fashion. Ce texte, actuellement en discussion, introduit un mécanisme innovant de bonus–malus dans le cadre de la responsabilité élargie des producteurs (REP), afin de faire contribuer davantage les acteurs dont les pratiques alimentent la surconsommation et les déchets textiles.
Dans cette lettre adressée au vice-président Stéphane Séjourné et à la commissaire Jessika Roswall, nous rappelons l’urgence d’agir à la source du problème : des volumes de production toujours plus élevés, des collections qui se multiplient et un modèle économique fondé sur des vêtements à faible valeur et à durée de vie courte. Ces pratiques saturent les filières de réemploi (en témoignent les difficultés du secteur en Belgique), exportent la pollution vers des pays tiers (comme le souligne une étude que j'ai commandée) et fragilisent l’industrie textile européenne, qui a perdu des centaines de milliers d’emplois en une décennie.
Alors que la directive-cadre sur les déchets révisée permet aux États membres de moduler les éco-contributions en fonction des pratiques des producteurs, nous appelons à ne pas entraver les initiatives nationales ambitieuses comme la loi française. Au contraire, nous invitons la Commission européenne à soutenir les États membres qui souhaitent montrer la voie vers une industrie textile plus soutenable, axée sur la réduction des déchets, la protection de l’environnement et la restauration d'une filière textile européenne durable.
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Dear Vice-President Séjourné,
Dear Commissioner Roswall,
As Members of the European Parliament dedicated to a fair and sustainable fashion industry, we address you with a shared sense of urgency. We are united in the conviction that the European Union must confront the structural clothing overconsumption crisis driving the environmental and social harms of today’s textile sector. With Member States required to establish mandatory Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes for textiles by April 2028, it is essential that the Commission support—not obstruct—ambitious national measures aimed at tackling this problem at its source. Although representative of the whole system, Shein only is the tip of the iceberg and more profound regulation to ensure a safe and sustainable textile industry is necessary.
We therefore collectively express our strong support for the draft French “fast-fashion” law introducing a robust “bonus–malus” eco-modulation system. This approach directly targets the business practices that fuel excessive textile waste and reflects the intention of the co-legislators in the revised Waste Framework Directive (WFD) which is to give Member States the ability to modulate EPR contributions based on producers’ practices that generate overproduction.
Europe is currently consuming and discarding clothing at unsustainable levels. The continuous flow of low-value, surplus garments is overwhelming our second-hand markets and exporting environmental harm to countries in Africa and Asia, where discarded European textiles create pollution, debt burdens, and public-health challenges. At the same time, the globalised model enabling this overproduction—built on synthetic fibres, opaque supply chains, and outsourced low-wage manufacturing—has contributed to the erosion of Europe’s own textile industry, which lost 735,000 jobs between 2009 and 2021.
The EU’s Textile Strategy correctly identifies the proliferation of collections and the acceleration of production rhythms as systemic problems. But if policy continues to focus exclusively on product-level improvements, without addressing the relentless volumes placed on the market, even strong Ecodesign measures risk being rendered ineffective.
The revised Waste Framework Directive offers a clear solution: enabling Member States to design EPR fee modulation that accounts for producers’ practices linked to the overgeneration of textile waste. The draft French law operationalises this provision as intended—applying criteria such as number of references, company size, product lifespan, and the repair-cost ratio to better reflect the environmental externalities of overproduction. For such measures to be impactful, they must be accompanied by substantial and progressive fee levels and dissuasive penalties.
In light of the Commission’s Detailed Opinion No. 2 on Notification 2025/336/FR, we collectively call on the European Commission to respect the legislative intent of the WFD and to support Member States that choose to adopt ambitious eco-modulation mechanisms. Restricting this policy space would undermine the EU’s efforts to address textile waste and contradict the clear mandate given by the co-legislators. We join to this letter a legal analysis demonstrating that the French law is legally sound.
We urge the Commission to stand with Member States willing to lead by example instead of blocking initiatives and ask for a green light on the eco-modulation fees as proposed in the draft French law on a sustainable textile industry.
We remain at your disposal to discuss further the matter and look forward to your answer.
Kind regards,
Yours sincerely,
Saskia Bricmont, Greens/EFA
François Kalfon, S&D
Sirpa Pietikäinen, EPP
Barry Andrews, Renew
Majdouline Sbai, Greens/EFA
Maria Grapini, S&D
Virginius Sinkevicius, Greens/EFA
Lara Wolters, S&D
Sara Matthieu, Greens/EFA
Pierre Jouvet, S&D
Rasmus Nordqvist, Greens/EFA
Murielle Laurent, S&D
Catarina Vieira, Greens/EFA
Anna Strolenberg, Greens/EFA
Yvan Verougstraete, Renew
Anna Cavazzini, Greens/EFA