EU unveils plan to secure raw materials, cut dependency and ask social public acceptance on mining

How can the EU increase the sourcing within the EU? Europe has a long tradition of mining and extractive activities, with aggregates and industrial minerals as well as certain base metals such as copper and zinc. https://www.eudebates.tv/debates/eu-policies/business-eu-policies/europe-secures-the-supply-of-eu-raw-materials/ #eudebates #Space Mining #rawmaterials #industry #EUGreenDeal It is less successful in developing projects to develop critical raw materials, even though there is significant potential for these. The reasons are multi-faceted: lack of investment in exploration and mining, diverse and lengthy national permitting procedures or tranditionally lower levels of public acceptance.

The EU and its Member States already have a good legislative framework in place to ensure that mining takes place under environmentally and socially sound conditions.

For the reasons mentioned above, it is very difficult to bring new critical raw material projects to the operational stage quickly. However, solutions exists. Innovative technological solutions are transforming the mining and processing of critical raw materials. The sector is already using automation and digitalisation. Remote sensing using Europe's earth-observation Copernicus Programme can become a powerful tool to identify new critical raw material sites, monitor the environmental performance of mines during their operating life and after closure.

What is the objective of the European Raw Materials Alliance?

The EU Industrial Strategy proposes to develop new industrial alliances. The raw materials dimension should be an integral part of each of these alliances. For example, the European Battery Alliance has put a strong emphasis on securing access to lithium. The investment it has mobilised should lead to supplying 80% of Europe's lithium batteries demand from European sources by 2025.

On the top of this, there is also a need for a dedicated industrial alliance on raw materials, as announced in the Industrial Strategy, since there are a number of important cross-cutting challenges such as highly concentrated global markets, investment and innovation barriers, and increased level of sustainable sourcing, that cannot be addressed only per sector.

In a first phase, this European Raw Materials Alliance will focus on the most pressing need, which is to increase EU resilience in the rare earths elements and magnets value chain, as this is vital to most of EU industrial ecosystems (including renewable energy, defence and space). The alliance can expand to address other critical raw material and base metal needs over time.
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Who participates in the European Raw Materials Alliance and how is it financed?

The alliance is open to all relevant stakeholders, including industrial actors along the value chain, Member States and regions, trade unions, civil society, research and technology organisations, investors and NGOs. The alliance will apply the principles of cooperation, inclusiveness and transparency. It will respect EU trade and competition rules. The alliance will identify barriers, opportunities and will have a governance framework involving all relevant stakeholders. The Commission will be ready to advise if industrial consortia seek EU funding (such as through InvestEU or the Just Transition Fund) or designation as an Important Projects of Common European Interest.

EU CRITICAL RAW MATERIALS LIST
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