Europe’s actions on raw materials

The European Commission announces actions to make Europe’s raw materials supply more secure and sustainable.

The EU Green Deal recognises and highlights the strategic importance of securing the supply of clean and affordable energy and raw materials to fulfil its ambition to become climate-neutral by 2050. The renewed EU industrial policy strategy also points out the key role that raw materials – and in particular critical raw materials – have to play in the Europe’s competitiveness and resilience.

The European Commission presented yesterday its Action Plan on Critical Raw Materials outlining concrete steps undertaken to enhance Europe’s industrial and strategic autonomy by securing the supply of critical raw materials. The Action Plan looks at the current and future challenges and proposes actions to reduce Europe’s dependency on third countries, diversifying supply from both primary and secondary sources and improving resource efficiency and circularity while promoting responsible sourcing worldwide. In additon to this action plan, the EC issued the 2020 list of critical raw materials on which lithium was added.

” A secure and sustainable supply of raw materials is a prerequisite for a resilient economy. For e-car batteries and energy storage alone, Europe will for instance need up to 18 times more lithium by 2030 and up to 60 times more by 2050. As our foresight shows, we cannot allow to replace current reliance on fossil fuels with dependency on critical raw materials. This has been magnified by the coronavirus disruptions in our strategic value chains“, said Maroš Šefčovič, Vice-President for Interinstitutional Relations and Foresight.

Visit the European Commission website for more information.