Recently, the EU, together with the European Leather Federation (COTANCE) and industriAll Europe, officially finalized and released the EU leather industry's core development plan for 2026-2030. This industry plan, with "humanity, planet, and prosperity" as its three core pillars, builds upon the achievements of the previous 2018-2025 leather industry development roadmap, deeply aligns with the core requirements of the EU's Sustainable and Circular Textiles Strategy, and is based on the realities of the entire leather industry chain. It focuses on four core directions: green and low-carbon transformation, digital technology upgrading, raw material security, and enhanced market competitiveness, setting clear development goals and implementation measures, and charting a clear path for the high-quality development of the EU leather industry over the next five years.
As an important part of European manufacturing, the EU leather industry currently encompasses approximately 1,500 companies, directly supporting 30,000 jobs, and is one of the core sectors of the EU's light manufacturing industry. This newly released industry plan is not merely a single environmental or industrial policy, but a comprehensive development framework that balances ecological responsibility, labor rights, and industrial economic value. Its core objective is to propel the EU leather industry away from its traditional linear development model and towards a new, sustainable, circular, high-value-added, and highly compliant industrial structure, while simultaneously maintaining the EU's leading position in global technology and standards.
Based on the core development principle of "Earth," and solidifying the foundation for green and circular development, is the paramount focus of this EU leather industry plan and the core focus of all its measures. The plan explicitly states that it will fully implement the EU's Ecodesign Regulation (ESPR) and Digital Product Passport (DPP) requirements. From 2026 onwards, leather products circulating within the EU will be subject to stringent ecodesign standards, establishing clear compliance thresholds for product durability, repairability, recyclability, and the proportion of recycled materials. Leather products that do not meet these standards will be prohibited from entering the EU market. In terms of low-carbon emission reduction, the EU will continue to optimize the PEF/OEF methodology for calculating the carbon footprint of the leather industry throughout its entire life cycle, promote the completion of carbon footprint certification and registration for leather companies, and require imported leather products to submit relevant carbon footprint certificates simultaneously starting in 2026. The goal is to achieve a 15%-20% reduction in carbon emissions from the EU leather industry by 2030 compared to 2025, and to achieve sustained and in-depth emission reductions compared to 2018.
Regarding the circular economy and raw material management, the plan proposes to deepen the construction of a circular bio-economy system. On the one hand, it will optimize the fair allocation rules for EU domestic raw hide resources, promote the research and implementation of green and low-toxicity alternatives to traditional leather-making processes such as chrome tanning, and strongly support cross-value chain recycling projects for leather production waste. On the other hand, it will strictly implement the requirements of the EU's Zero Deforestation Act, conduct farm-level forest protection traceability verification for imported leather raw materials, and promote blockchain technology to achieve full traceability of raw hides from farming to processing. The plan aims to achieve a traceability penetration rate of over 60% in the EU leather industry chain by 2030, creating a closed-loop leather raw material supply chain. Meanwhile, the EU will continue to rely on the REACH regulation to strictly control the use of harmful chemicals in leather production, forcing the industry to upgrade its processes and protect the ecological environment and consumer safety.
Upholding the fundamental principle of "human-centered" development and ensuring the human value during industrial transformation is a crucial support for the EU's leather industry plan. The plan clearly states that it will focus on the skills matching and rights protection of leather industry practitioners, vigorously promote professional training programs such as "Metaskills4TCLF," and establish a systematic "trainer training" mechanism to help industry workers quickly master new skills such as green production and digital management to meet the needs of industrial transformation. Addressing the market's misuse of the term "leather" for synthetic materials, the EU will promote the development of unified labeling standards for leather products, strengthen market supervision and consumer rights protection, and safeguard the authenticity and identifiability of leather products. At the same time, by strengthening the regular social dialogue mechanism between employers and trade unions in EU member states, the plan aims to balance the employment structure adjustment during industrial transformation, ensure the employment security and wage fairness of practitioners, and ensure that the benefits of industrial development reach every practitioner.
The ultimate goal of the EU leather industry plan is to solidify the core competitiveness of the industry, closely adhering to the development objective of "prosperity." The plan proposes that the EU will continue to promote regulatory adaptation and standards development in the leather industry, push for the EU Taxonomy to recognize the circular economy attributes of leather, and deeply participate in the formulation of core indicators such as eco-design and digital product passports. This aims to avoid excessive regulation that could put pressure on the industry and create a favorable policy environment for leather companies. Regarding resource security, the plan will actively seek green energy subsidies to stabilize energy and raw material supplies for leather production, effectively reducing production costs for enterprises. In terms of innovation, the plan will focus on supporting core projects such as blockchain traceability, AI-powered intelligent quality control, and the research and development of bio-based leather raw materials, promoting the deep integration of digital technology and leather manufacturing, and continuously enhancing the added value and technical barriers of EU leather products. In the area of international trade, the EU will strengthen market compliance supervision of leather products from non-EU countries, promote mutual recognition of global leather industry standards, build a fair international trade competition environment, and solidify the EU's 14%-15% market share of high-end leather products globally.
It is understood that the EU Leather Industry Development Plan 2026-2030 is being coordinated and promoted by the Industry-Society Dialogue Committee, with the European Leather Federation leading implementation by enterprises, European industrial unions representing the labor force, and the European Commission providing policy guidance and special funding support. This multi-party collaboration forms a synergy for industrial development. The plan also explicitly proposes to connect with the EU Green Deal Fund and the Circular Economy Special Support Fund, focusing on helping SMEs complete technological transformation and innovation upgrades, and alleviating the cost pressures brought about by environmental transformation.
Looking towards 2030, the EU Leather Industry Plan sets clear development goals: to achieve a continuous decline in industrial carbon emissions, a recycling rate of over 30%, and 100% digital product passport coverage. While upholding ecological bottom lines and protecting labor rights, the plan aims to continuously consolidate the EU leather industry's global technological advantages and market competitiveness, truly achieving a unity of ecological, social, and economic benefits, and setting an EU benchmark for the sustainable development of the global leather industry.
