Assocal holds talks in Brussels
20/04/2015
Assocal’s president, Cleto Sagripanti, its director general, Tommaso Cancellara and the head of its economics unit, Matteo Scarparo, travelled to Brussels in mid-April to present the organisation’s most recent annual report to the politicians and to discuss with them the current situation in Italian footwear.
Afterwards, Assocal said the parlamentarians had promised “concrete support” on areas such as labels of origin, sustainable production and ‘reshoring’, the return to Italy of manufacturing operations that had previously been outsourced to producers in lower-cost countries.
Commenting on the meeting, Cleto Sagripanti said: “This was a way of underlining the great potential of Italian manufacturing. We are convinced that there can be no re-launching of manufacturing, a true strategic force in our country’s economy, without a change in European industrial policy.”
Next steps Assocal will take include lobbying for a public hearing before the European Parliament’s Industry, Research and Energy Commission with joint involvement of representatives from across the Italian and European manufacturing sector, starting with the fashion industry. It says it has also identified a new series of tools for supporting the international expansion of
small and medium-sized enterprises, specifically targeting emerging markets that offer what it calls particularly good long-term prospects.
And to emphasise the excellence of Italian-made footwear it is setting up another project to put some of Italy’s most iconic footwear creations into an exhibition inside the European Parliament building in Brussels.
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