
Milano Unica trade show records 10% rise in international visitors
The share of international visitors at the show, which presented the Fall/Winter 2026-27 collections of premium fabrics and accessories for men, women and children, was 45% of the total. The number of exhibitors too was up from last edition, to 735, driven by an 8.7% increase in European exhibitors.
'Almost all the main markets for Italian exports of fabrics and accessories, both in the EU and outside the EU, have responded positively. While the results, which I hope will be positive, will be seen in 2026, the satisfactory attendance figures of foreign buyers, a fact confirmed by the extensive positive feedback I gathered among fellow exhibitors, makes us look to the future with moderate optimism,' said Simone Canclini, president of Milano Unica.
'The exceptional results we have achieved in this edition of the show are the fruit of our team work, (..) and they confirm the strategic role Milano Unica plays in supporting [Italy's] textile and fashion industries, evident also in the partnership with the MarediModa show,' said Massimo Mosiello, managing director of Milano Unica.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Euronews
36 minutes ago
- Euronews
Tech giants can easily check age of child users, says Danish minister
The largest online platforms should not have any issues implementing looming age verification solutions, Denmark's digital minister told Euronews in response to heavy lobbying around online child protection measures by the tech industry. 'They are the biggest companies in the world, with a bigger economy than most of our countries could ever dream of. I think they will manage to find a solution,' Caroline Stage Olsen said. On Monday, Stage Olsen together with the EU Technology Commissioner Henna Virkkunen, said five EU countries – Denmark, France, Greece, Italy and Spain – plan work on a customised national age verification application in a bid to shield children from harmful content online. This app should allow users to easily prove they are over 18 when accessing restricted adult content online. In the long term, the Commission hopes to integrate age verification functionalities within digital identification tools, European Digital Identity Wallets (eID), which will be rolled-out next year. Big tech companies face increasing pressure to implement age verification tools to combat the spread of child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The CSAM regulation, proposed in 2022 and currently under debate in the Council of the EU, also relies heavily on identifying minors online to shield them from predators. Some companies have now implemented AI powered solutions to tackle the problem, but Stage Olsen said that she is confident online platforms will find the money to work on the tools. 'I'm sure that they will manage to have hired some of the brightest heads in the world concerning technology,' she said. US tech giant Meta last year proposed a harmonised age verification and safety standard system for apps and online services to the Commission. If an underaged child wants to download an app, app stores would be required to notify their parents under Meta's proposal. The 27 EU member states are currently free to set their own rules for age verification and there are no EU standards, although some of the EU rules foresee improved age verification to protect minors including the Digital Services Act (DSA) and Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD). Denmark, which started chairing meetings of EU ministers this month, said it has put several child protection measures on top of the agenda during the country's chairmanship. 'I will use the presidency to put this on top of the agenda and set a clear, political ambition that can shape EU policy in the years to come,' Stage Olsen said. One way of making the tools mandatory would be introducing these measures in a planned Digital Fairness Act, rules the Commission will put forward early next year to protect consumers online.


Euronews
36 minutes ago
- Euronews
Retaliatory tariffs: Which EU countries could be impacted the most?
The EU is gearing up for retaliation in case trade negotiations with Washington fail by 1 August. Should there be no agreement, the US will start charging 30% tariffs on almost all goods imported from the bloc. After having been caught off guard by a letter threatening the 30% duty on EU goods last weekend, the European Commission has quickly tabled a plan to put countertariffs on US exports worth €72 billion, inevitably hitting the European Union's own economy. This is a follow-up on the European Commission's previously proposed list of US products, worth €95bn, that could be hit with EU countertariffs. The potential EU retaliatory tariffs target imports of industrial goods from the US, including aircraft and aircraft parts, machinery, automotives, chemicals and plastics, and medical devices and equipment. These types of imports are worth €65.7bn out of the €72bn total. It also lists agricultural products, including bourbon, but there are minor though surprising items, such as amusement park rides, toothbrushes, hairbrushes and natural rubber latex. If imposed, the tariffs mean that European consumers or businesses would buy these products at a higher price, pushing up inflation. However, according to Sylvain Broyer, chief European economist, S&P Global Ratings, the inflationary effect of countermeasures could be minimal. He told Euronews Business that 'EU tariffs on US goods would have only a modest impact on European inflation — likely just a couple of tenths of a percentage point — and are unlikely to significantly affect overall economic activity.' The bigger risk may come from supply chain disruptions. Where Europe could really feel the pinch is in services: 'the EU is highly reliant on US services, particularly in sectors like technology, payments and consulting,' Broyer said. Which EU countries are hit the most by these countermeasures? Certain industries, propping up various countries' economies, could face serious supply chain disruptions if the EU and the US go into a trade war. Aviation is one of them, as aeroplanes and aircraft parts are some of the products set to be the most dramatically impacted by EU countermeasures. Potential EU import restrictions on these goods, worth nearly €11bn, according to a document from the European Commission. Within the member states, the country with the biggest US aircraft imports in 2024 was Ireland, followed by France, the Netherlands and Germany. Aviation between the US and EU is a highly interconnected sector. French multinational aerospace and defence company Thales supplies US-based Boeing and European competitor Airbus with flight management systems and cockpit displays. In exchange, US aerospace giant Honeywell provides flight management systems for Airbus. Apart from threatening serious breakdowns in the supply chain, the EU's potential retaliatory tariffs on US-made aircraft is a direct blow to Boeing. The firm sourced 13% or more than $8.7bn (€7.5bn) of its revenues from Europe in 2024. Any such step from the EU may risk higher US tariffs on European aircraft. For the European firm Airbus, its North America revenue was double that of Boeing's last year, at more than $16bn (€13.8bn). Ireland left vulnerable Potential EU countermeasures on aircraft imports, coupled with retaliation from the US administration, could risk Ireland's position as a world-leading hub in aviation. Ireland is home to more than 50 aircraft leasing companies managing 10,000 aircraft. According to a recent report by aviation investment group Irelandia, this is equivalent to 37% of the global commercial fleet and makes the country a central player in the world's air transport infrastructure. Ireland is already facing a serious hit to its economy due to potentially high US tariffs on its exports to the US after the 1 August deadline. The country is deemed to be one of the most affected economies in the EU, besides Germany. Brussels-based think tank Bruegel has estimated that Ireland's cumulative real GDP loss, due to the total impact of US tariffs, could be 3% by 2028. That's if, as President Trump has promised, pharmaceutical goods face heavy duties. 'In Ireland's case, the aircraft imports amount to over 1% of GDP, in the Netherlands, the large machinery and medicinal equipment imports are equivalent to 6% of GDP,' Rory Fennessy, senior economist at Oxford Economics, told Euronews Business. Belgium's overall imports from the US are equivalent to 5% of GDP. Machinery is the second most concerned product group on the Commission's list, imports worth €9.43bn would be hit by countertariffs. That would come as a shock to supply chains in Germany, the Netherlands, France and Ireland. 'Even if countries have a limited direct import exposure to the United States, there can be significant spillovers to other countries simply down to the close supply chain integration and the impact on adjacent support industries due to tariffs,' said Fennessy. One of the key examples is the close relationship between Germany and the Central and Eastern European countries, including Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, especially with regards to the automotive sector. Countries in Central and Eastern Europe have been attracting a lot of foreign investment, much of which came from Germany. This plays an important role in driving the region's development. And vehicles are the third-largest product group exposed to potential retaliatory tariffs. The country with the highest imports of vehicles or parts from the US is Germany, worth nearly €7.5bn in 2024, followed by Belgium (€1.8bn). These countries would feel the most pressure from higher prices in this sector. 'But of course, the exact spillover varies and some countries are more directly exposed in certain sectors, so would likely feel a quicker price impact in such cases,' Fennessy added. If prices go up, even temporarily, while companies try to find new sources to contribute to their supply chains, that would be another blow to Germany's ailing automotive sector and could lead to more cost-cutting measures from the major brands, including Volkswagen and Mercedes. These firms have production plants in Hungary and elsewhere in central and eastern Europe. What other products are concerned? The European Commission's product hit list includes chemicals and plastics, as well as medical devices, with each category amounting to more than €7.5bn worth of imports from the US to the EU in 2024. The most affected countries are Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. As for chemicals, the EU nation that buys the most from the US is Belgium, with €13.7bn worth of imports in 2024. That's followed by the Netherlands with €12.5bn and Germany with €12.3bn. When it comes to plastics, Belgium tops the list with more than €3bn of US imports, followed by Germany (€2bn) and the Netherlands with €1.5bn. Imports of US medical devices in the EU was the highest in the Netherlands, where these products were worth €4.63bn. That's followed by Germany, with €2.65bn in imports, and Belgium with more than €1bn. The EU is also considering putting retaliatory tariffs on €6.4bn worth of agricultural products, including bourbon whiskey. The country that imports the most bourbon from the US is the Netherlands, buying goods worth more than €60 million a year. This, on its own, may not hurt the economy. But if the European spirits and drinks sector is exposed to Washington's countermeasures, French wine and Irish whiskey would also be targeted. If there is no agreement between the US and the EU before Trump's deadline, the European agricultural sector, among many others, will face a 30% tariff on its exports to the US, a consequence labelled catastrophic by French lobbying groups. Brussels says it is still seeking a deal to avoid a tit-for-tat escalation in the trade war but is poised to retaliate if needed.


Euronews
36 minutes ago
- Euronews
EU budget: Parliament revolts against Commission proposal
The European Parliament's members are deeply unsatisfied with the proposal for a seven-year budget, the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) put forward by the European Commission on Wednesday and have threatened at the outset not to enter into negotiations on the paper. The level of information provided by Budget Commissioner Piotr Serafin in a briefing to MEPs from the Parliament's Committee on Budgets (BUDG) on Wednesday was deemed unsatisfactory by most. 'Commission President's Ursula von der Leyen is giving a press conference and she is giving to the press more information than you to us,' lamented Belgian MEP Johan Van Overtveldt, the committee's chair. Some of his colleagues underlined the lack of figures, official documents, and explanatory materials from the Commission to prepare for the discussion with the Commissioner. Commissioner Serafin, who acknowledged the discontent, said that he had left the decision-making meeting of the Commission early to be present at the Parliament and to present the proposal there first, "in recognition of [Parliament's] role". MEPs were also very critical of the content of the proposal, which amounts to almost €2 trillion, or 1.26% of the EU's gross national income. 'For sure, this is not a 'historic budget' as the European Commission is attempting to present it. It is at the same level as the budget of the EU in the previous seven years,' Siegfried Mureșan, one of the rapporteurs for the MFF in the Parliament, from the European People's Party (EPP), said during a press conference. 'The attempt of the Commission to convince us that this budget is a significant increase is misleading. The increase is coming only for the adjustment to the inflation rate and it is only coming because we have to pay back the Next Generation EU fund,' he said, referring to the extraordinary funding lines furnished to recover following the COVID-19 pandemic. Like many of his colleagues, Mureșan also believes that key demands from the Parliament have been ignored. One of the most contentious points concerns the so-called 'National and Regional Partnership Plans', under which the EU funds will be disbursed. 'This proposal is an attempt to renationalise the EU,' he told Commissioner Serafin and repeated in the press conference. This opposition to national plans was reiterated in a statement from the leaders of the Parliament's so-called centrist majority groups—EPP, Socialists and Democrats, Renew Europe, and Greens/EFA. They believe that the national plans would give more power to the member states to deal directly with the Commission, bypassing the Parliament's role. 'The European Parliament will not accept any reduction of Parliamentary oversight and the legitimate democratic control and scrutiny over the EU spending,' read the statement. Another problematic issue is the merging of cohesion and agricultural funds, which most MEPs would like to see funded under a separate budget line and legal base. Better received was the proposal on 'own resources'—taxes imposed at the EU level that should generate €58.5 billion per year, according to the Commission. Several MEPs endorsed the idea of increasing revenues by imposing duties on tobacco products and taxing companies with a net annual turnover of at least €100 million. The MFF requires the regulatory consent of the European Parliament in addition to the unanimous consent of the EU member states to be approved: a majority of MEPs must therefore approve the final text for it to enter into force. At this stage, the Parliament may also refuse to enter into talks, the rapporteurs have threatened. MEPs could approve a resolution asking the Commission to withdraw its proposal and present a new basis for negotiations. But this would be a last resort, as co-rapporteur Carla Tavares from the Socialists and Democrats told Euronews. 'We want to put pressure and work with the Commission in order to find a compromise acceptable to all.'