No emergency funding for struggling collectors

There are no plans for an emergency fund to support struggling clothing collectors in Europe, says Commissioner Jessika Roswall. She responded to the European Parliament question from MEP Saskia Bricmont (Verts/ALE) and MEP David Cormand (Verts/ALE) which highlighted that social enterprises handling second-hand clothes and textile waste are struggling financially due to rising volumes of low-quality textiles, insufficient recycling capacity, and the EU requirement to collect textiles from January 2025.

Bricmont and Cormand asked the Commission: 

1. What measures it will take to prevent social enterprises from bearing the costs of textile waste management. 

2. Whether an EU-level emergency fund will be established before the extended producer responsibility (EPR) scheme starts in 2028, and how Member States could access it rapidly to cover related costs. 

In her response, Roswall confirmed that the Commission recognises the challenges faced by the second-hand textile sector, mainly due to rising volumes of used textiles from fast fashion. The Commission does not plan an EU-level emergency fund but encourages Member States to complement EU measures with national initiatives and cohesion policy funds. 

Under the revised Waste Framework Directive, Member States must introduce separate textile collection by 1 January 2025. The Commission also proposed extended producer responsibility (EPR), making producers finance collection and waste management. This should support reuse operators and social enterprises, which can keep collection points and may benefit from free textile waste collection under EPR systems.