In preparation for the meeting of the Working Party on Competitiveness and Growth on 7 September 2022, the Council Presidency published a note on Critical Raw Materials (CRMs). The note provides an overview of the current challenges for the EU regarding CRMs and proposes a few points of discussion.
The key takeaways of the note are the following:
Securing the EU’s access to CRMs is essential for the industrial transition of strategic economic sectors such as e-mobility, aerospace, renewable energies, digital industries, health, agriculture, security and defence.
Diversifying the supply chains is crucial for preserving the supply of CRMs.
The European Commission is negotiating strategic partnerships on CRMs with resource-rich and like-minded countries.
The Commission announced the drafting of legislative proposal for CRMs to strengthen the EU’s monitoring capacity and to reinforce the EU’s value chain, while also ensuring a high level of environmental and social protection.
Recycling will be crucial in the medium- and long-term. The Council considers it is important to have a common EU recycling framework for raw materials.
During the meeting, Member States will discuss the bottlenecks for availability of CRMs they encounter, what actions they are taking to address such bottlenecks, their expectations for the regulatory proposal and more.
To access the note, click here.