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COTANCE Euroleather

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COTANCE Euroleather

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COTANCE is a non-profit organization established in order to represent and promote the interests of the European tanning industry at international level.

02/10/2026

On 30 September, COTANCE Secretary General Edoardo De Paola took the floor at the European Parliament for the presentation of the Circular Fashion Manifesto 2026, the annual output of the SDA Bocconi Monitor for Circular Fashion led by Francesca Romana Rinaldi.

He made three points on the Digital Product Passport (DPP):
- Digital product passport should contain a definition of the term leather, as the delegated act for textiles is being co-developed together with the Textiles Labelling Regulation revision
- DPP should foster accountability across the EU, a plastic product marketed as "ecoleather" should be accountable in the EU countries where a definition of leather already exists: Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Romania

The day before, COTANCE hosted the SDA Bocconi delegation at our Brussels offices to present our portfolio of five pan-European projects and discuss where leather fits in the circular fashion agenda.

Circularity cannot be built sector by sector in isolation. Conversations like these are how the connections get made.

02/10/2026

SER2026 Factsheet - everything you need to know about the European leather industry

Within the EU-funded SER2026 project, we have produced a concise, evidence-based profile of the European leather-producing sector and its sustainability credentials, built for anyone who needs the facts quickly.
What is inside:
Economic data: the size, structure and value chain of the European leather sector
Social standards: employment conditions and the industry's approach to skills
Leather's sustainability credentials, including bio-based content, environmental footprint and the latest conclusions from the UNIDO Guidelines
The EU-funded projects COTANCE manages across skills, social responsibility and the circular economy
The full picture will be updated in the Social and Environmental Report 2026, the sector-wide initiative COTANCE runs together with industriAll Europe, with results due in 2027.
Want a copy? Drop us a message

25/09/2026

What happens to a Regional Skills Partnership when the project ends?

COTANCE, with EURATEX and CEC, has published the TCLF SkillBridge Sustainability and Funding Planning Guide - a practical toolkit for RSPs that want to outlast the projects that created them.
Built on interviews with coordinators in six European regions. Governance, funding models, SME engagement, country-by-country funding maps, and five templates ready to use.

Free to download and adapt👇
https://euroleather.com/images/D1.7_Sustainability%20and%20Funding%20Planning%20Guide_%201.pdf

22/09/2026

Beyond the EUDR, traceability remains pivotal for the European leather industry

Traceability is here to stay and due diligence has been on our agenda since 2000, when COTANCE and its trade union partners adopted a joint Code of Conduct.

Here is what is already in place:

Data on due diligence. SER2026, run with the trade union industriAll Europe, is collecting data from tanneries in six Member States. For the first time, it includes a dedicated due diligence section, alongside 37 social and 39 environmental indicators. Results will be published in 2027.
A European traceability standard. EN 18199, developed with the Leather Traceability Cluster Alliance, sets minimum traceability requirements for leather. COTANCE is working to secure its official CEN recognition as the reference for the sector.
Digital tracking of hides. Hide Eco Track, developed by UNIC and Lineapelle, gives tanneries infrastructure to follow hides back through the value chain.
Innovative traceability technologies. Developed by the multiple leather centres of excellence, using radio-frequency tags, leather marking and chemical marking. Tanneries' leathers can be tracked from cradle to gate.
Traceability beyond Europe. COTANCE promotes traceability well beyond Europe's borders. The latest example: at the launch of the East African Community Leather Value Chain initiative this month, COTANCE put traceability at the top of the agenda.

Traceability remains a priority for the leather value chain, and we look forward to the success of the above-mentioned projects.

15/09/2026

It is official. Leather is out of the EUDR.

The Delegated Act excluding hides, skins and leather from the EU Deforestation Regulation has been formally adopted by the European Commission and cleared parliamentary scrutiny. Publication in the Official Journal is expected shortly, pending translation into all EU languages.

It took two years, rigorous research, and an industry that refused to give up.
"Today the European Union saved a European industry recognized globally for its excellency - formally, and definitively. This is a historic day for every tannery, every worker, and every stakeholder who stood behind this cause." - Manuel Rios, President of COTANCE

Traceability and environmental accountability remain our top priority, while the 2030 EUDR review is already on our radar.

Full press release 👉 https://www.euroleather.com/news/latest/1378-leather-formally-excluded-from-the-eudr-a-historic-victory-for-the-european-and-global-leather-industry

09/09/2026

Helsinki, 8-9 September 2026. AEQUALIS4TCLF project partners gathered for their 6th in-person consortium meeting, taking stock of progress, aligning on next steps, and doing so in one of Europe's greenest capitals.

The timing could not be better. The European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) recently confirmed that the project has been efficiently and effectively managed and the results speak for themselves.

Here are some updates:
• Regional Skills Partnerships. Two RSPs are now fully operational: North-East Czechia / Prague and Zlín (TCLF sectors) and Central Slovenia (Textiles & Clothing) with 5 more coming at various stages of registration across Europe.
• The industry pulse is being monitored. New data and insights are being gathered continuously through surveys and interviews, ensuring the training content stays anchored to real, current skills needs across the TCLF sector. A new survey is coming in just a few weeks, so stay tuned.
• The micro-courses are almost ready. AI-powered video modules are in their final stage of development & the first piloting phase with real students at partner universities is set to begin in January 2027.

From skills mapping to AI-powered learning, from regional partnerships to university pilots: AEQUALIS4TCLF is delivering and the best is still to come.

04/09/2026

COTANCE welcomes A3 Leather Innovation Center as a new Supporting Member.

A3 is a research group of the University of Lleida, based at the Campus of Igualada - one of Europe's leading applied research centres dedicated to leather, chemistry and biotechnology, with over 50 years of expertise in the leather sector.
The centre works across the full leather value chain: from slaughterhouses and tanneries to chemical companies and waste treatment, developing new processes, technologies and products that reduce environmental impact and push the boundaries of what leather can do.

Learn more about A3 Leather Innovation Center: https://a3center.cat/index.php/en/

For A3, joining COTANCE as a Supporting Member opens a new chapter.
"Membership in COTANCE gives A3 pan-European and global outreach across the entire leather value chain - opening doors to opportunities that would otherwise be out of reach, particularly in the field of EU-funded research and innovation projects. This is exactly the kind of connection that turns science into real impact for our industry." - Anna Bacardit, Director, A3 Leather Innovation Center
For COTANCE, welcoming A3 means bringing world-class leather research directly into our European network. A3 Leather Innovation Center is exactly the kind of partner that makes that network stronger.

👉 Interested in joining COTANCE as a Supporting Member?
Learn more at https://www.euroleather.com/join-cotance

02/09/2026

On 2 September 2026, COTANCE joined the launch of the East African Community Leather Value Chain Development Initiative, part of the EU-funded MARKUP II programme led by the International Trade Centre (ITC), in collaboration with the Portuguese Footwear Technology Centre (CTCP) and the Africa Leather and Leather Products Institute (ALLPI).
The initiative is designed to help East African countries - Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, South Sudan and beyond - move from exporting raw and semi-processed hides to producing competitive, value-added leather materials, strengthening the leather value chain across the region and building long-term institutional capacity.
At the launch, COTANCE Secretary General Edoardo De Paola pointed to three critical gaps the initiative must address:

🔹 Know-how transfer - East Africa holds vast quantities of raw hides and skins, much of which goes unprocessed or is processed incorrectly. Closing that gap is precisely where European expertise can make a real difference.

🔹 Traceability - with or without the EUDR, traceability is here to stay. The CEN standard EN 18199, developed by the Leather Traceability Cluster, provides a concrete framework for minimum leather traceability & one the region already has a connection to, as ALLPI was part of the initiative from the outset.

🔹 The role of clusters - as Europe's experience demonstrates, strong industry clusters are essential for representing SMEs, defending their interests, and creating new synergies across the leather value chain.

As ITC acknowledged at the launch, COTANCE is where it all started: in 2024, then-Secretary General Gustavo Gonzalez-Quijano travelled to Nairobi, matched the right people together, and helped shape the initiative from the ground up. Today, that groundwork has become reality. We are excited to keep supporting it all the way to the finish line.

17/07/2026

SER2026 is entering its data collection phase!
The most downloaded document in COTANCE's history is getting its 2026 update and data collection starts now.
From July to October 2026, national partners in France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Portugal and Spain will collect data from tanneries and trade unions across Europe, building the sector's most comprehensive social and environmental benchmark to date.
Compared to the 2020 edition, SER2026 introduces:
✅ A three-year reference period (2023–2025)
✅ New social indicators such as work-life balance
✅ Expanded occupational safety data
✅ Updated environmental and waste reporting
✅ A dedicated questionnaire for wastewater treatment plants
Built by the industry, for the industry, SER2026 will once again provide the evidence base that helps the European leather sector measure progress, demonstrate its performance and engage with policymakers on the basis of facts.
Follow the project: www.euroleather.com/ser-2026

14/07/2026

Big news for the European leather industry !

The European Commission has today adopted the EUDR Delegated Act amending the products under its scope - excluding leather from the EU Deforestation Regulation. The Delegated Act will be published in the Official Journal of the EU in mid-September, when the amended scope officially takes effect.
COTANCE welcomes this development. It reflects the realities of our supply chains and the technical unfeasibility of bringing leather downstream products within the Regulation's scope.
This doesn't mean stepping back from our commitment to responsible sourcing. The European leather industry remains fully dedicated to its existing traceability schemes, built collaboratively through the Leather Traceability Cluster and beyond, with input from industry, NGOs, and certification bodies across the value chain.
📅 COTANCE is looking forward to the officialization of leather's exclusion. This will happen with the publication of the EUDR Delegated Act in the EU Official Journal. This is expected to happen on 13 September.

https://euroleather.com/news/latest/1365-press-release-leather-out-of-the-eudr-european-commission-adopts-delegated-act

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