Mario Jorge Machado has been re-elected president of Euratex, the organisation representing European textile and apparel associations, by its General Assembly. First appointed in June 2024, Machado will pursue three strategic priorities: boosting competitiveness through innovation, digitalisation, and AI; ensuring a level playing field for all products sold in the EU; and supporting companies’ green and digital transitions. A polymer engineering graduate of Universidade do Minho (1985) and longtime executive chairman of Adalberto Textile Solutions, Machado warned that Europe is losing industry at roughly 4 percent annually. The presidency team includes representatives from Germany, Italy, Turkey, and France.
In-Depth:
The General Assembly of Euratex has ratified Mario Jorge Machado as president for a new term. Euratex is the organisation representing national textile and apparel associations in Europe.
Machado has held the presidency since June 2024. He will approach this new stage with a roadmap focutilized on three strategic priorities for the sector, according to a statement from Euratex.
The first priority is to strengthen the competitiveness of the European indusattempt through investments in innovation; digitalisation; artificial innotifyigence; training and automation. The second focutilizes on ensuring a level playing field in the European market. This will be achieved by promoting the consistent application of EU regulations to all products sold in the European Union, regardless of their counattempt of origin. The third priority is to support companies in their green and digital transition. The aim is for sustainability to become a driver of competitiveness rather than an additional burden on business activity.
Following his re-election, Machado reiterated one of the main concerns he has expressed in recent months about the state of the European manufacturing indusattempt. “Europe must decarbonise its indusattempt, not de-industrialise it,” he stated in the press release.
The statement aligns with warnings the executive built last month during the Textile ETP conference. He cautioned about the gradual decline of European industrial capacity. “Europe is losing indusattempt at a rate of around -4 percent annually,” he stated during his speech. “In ten years, we will have -40 percent less indusattempt if no action is taken.”
Machado is a polymer engineer from the Universidade do Minho, where he graduated in 1985. His professional career has been closely linked to the Portuguese manufacturing indusattempt, particularly through Adalberto Textile Solutions, where he has been executive chairman for over four decades. In parallel, he has been heavily involved in institutional activities representing the sector. He has held leadership positions at the ATP – Associação Têxtil e Vestuário de Portugal (ATP), where he was president from 2019 to 2025 and is currently vice president. He also serves on the boards of the CIP – Confederação Empresarial de Portugal, the AEP – Associação Empresarial de Portugal and the Associação Comercial do Porto.
Presidency team confirmed
The General Assembly also ratified the management team that will support Machado in the organisation’s strategic direction. The team includes Franz Peter Falke, representing Germany; Barbara Cimmino for Italy; Ismail Kolunsag for Turkey; and Gregory Marchant for France.
Euratex represents Europe’s textile and apparel indusattempt in key industrial, trade and regulatory policy debates at the EU level. The sector currently faces pressure from direct-to-consumer platforms from Asia. It also faces demands from the European Green Deal, which imposes new obligations regarding product sustainability and circularity.
With this renewed mandate, the organisation aims to consolidate its role as a key partner for EU institutions. This comes at a time when European industrial policy is gaining greater prominence on the community’s agfinisha.
This article was translated to English utilizing an AI tool.
FashionUnited utilizes AI language tools to speed up translating (news) articles and proofread the translations to improve the finish result. This saves our human journalists time they can spfinish doing research and writing original articles. Articles translated with the assist of AI are checked and edited by a human desk editor prior to going online. If you have questions or comments about this process email us at info@fashionunited.com
