Strengthening the representation of fashion retail in European policies, building international alliances, and protecting business competitiveness. These are the core outcomes of the National Council mission of Federazione Moda Italia-Confcommercio in Brussels at Confcommercio's European headquarters, which led to two major developments.

The First Historic MoU Between Italian and French Fashion Retailers

The first involves the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with France's Fédération Nationale de l'Habillement (FNH) to reinforce European collaboration. This agreement establishes a cooperation framework between the two federations, enabling them to tackle shared challenges alongside the retailers they represent and to amplify their voice before policy-makers.

"We want to build a stronger and more authoritative European voice for fashion businesses," stated president Giulio Felloni. "Our guiding principle is clear: not to suffer decisions, but to participate in the dialogue". Federazione Moda Italia will continue to monitor European policies, advocating for fair rules between physical and digital commerce, combating competitive asymmetries and ultra-fast fashion, securing cohesion policy support for micro and small enterprises regarding innovation, digitalization, and sustainability, and pushing for concrete tools for urban commercial regeneration.

A Major Win Against the EU Late Payment Regulation

The second key outcome comes from the European Commission, which announced on November 4 the withdrawal of the proposed Late Payment Regulation from its agenda. The proposal had aimed to impose a generalized 30-day payment limit on business-to-business (B2B) commercial transactions.

"This is an important result for fashion retail that we achieved after years of hard work. A strict 30-day limit would have penalized a sector characterized by purchasing plans set 8 to 10 months ahead of sales, without taking into account the organizational and commercial specificities of the supply chain," concluded Felloni.