EU Parliament confirms agreement on 17 critical strategic raw materials for dual transition

Brussels – Seventeen strategic critical raw materials and targets for extraction, processing, and recycling. With 549 votes in favor, 43 against, and 24 abstentions, the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg today (Dec. 12) confirmed the agreement that member states reached last Nov. 13 on the ‘Critical Raw Materials Act‘ regulation, the European Commission’s proposal on the supply of critical raw materials needed for the double transition, green and digital.

The European Commission first proposed the regulation on March 16 as one of the three pillars of the Green Deal Industrial Plan, along with the Net-Zero Industry Act and the reform of the EU electricity market. In essence, it established a list of critical raw materials (only a portion of which are to be considered “strategic”) and set targets for extraction, processing, and recycling within the EU, which is still too dependent on imports from third countries such as China (which holds over 90 percent of critical materials).

The law identified a total of 34 critical raw materials (from bauxite to helium, arsenic to strontium), but only 17 of these are considered strategic: bismuth, boron (metallurgical grade), cobalt, copper, gallium, germanium, lithium (battery grade), magnesium metal, manganese (battery grade), natural graphite (battery grade), nickel (battery grade), platinum group metals, metallic silicon, metallic titanium, tungsten, and rare earth elements for magnets: neodymium (Nd), praseodymium (Pr), terbium (Tb), dysprosium (Dy), gadolinium (Gd), samarium (Sm) and cerium (Ce).

The European co-legislators agreed to add aluminum to the list of strategic materials (bringing the list to 17 from 16). According to the new regulation, the European Union aims to have the capacity to extract 10 percent, process 40 percent, and recycle 25 percent of its annual consumption of strategic raw materials by 2030 (for recycling, the Commission’s proposal was for a 15 percent target).

The political compromise also unified the timeframe for the permitting process, which should not exceed 27 months for extraction projects and 15 months for processing and recycling projects. While the timetable for project approval will not include the first stage of the environmental impact assessment (the production of the report, which the project developer must conduct), the public consultation required for an environmental impact assessment will be part of the total duration of the permitting process.

The law is a “European response to the threats and pressures from some third countries against us regarding access to critical raw materials and also demonstrates our willingness to strengthen industrial production capacity in Europe so that Europe can master its own destiny,” European Commissioner for the Internal Market, Thierry Breton, said this morning during the plenary debate before the MEPs’ vote. The commissioner noted the co-legislators joint efforts “to reduce our dependence and to make our supply more reliable and more sustainable. Together, we were able to make progress despite initial differences and managed in record time to reach an agreement.”

The Eurochamber representative, Liberal MEP Nicola Beer, added that the regulation  “is an industrial policy blueprint for a secure and sustainable supply of raw materials in Europe. Through targeted economic incentives, we are creating certainty in project planning for private investors through single points of contact for companies and quick and simple permitting procedures with clear deadlines for national authorities. This will stimulate extraction, processing, and recycling in Europe.”