EU-Australia partnership restarts with critical raw materials. Bilateral memorandum of understanding signed

Brussels -EU and Australia skipped the trade deal and jumped to critical raw materials. Just over six months after the failed free trade agreement, Brussels and Canberra decided to tighten relations on one of the hottest fronts for global trade and the EU’s twin green and digital transitions. Today (May 28), they signed a memorandum of understanding for a bilateral partnership to cooperate on sustainable critical and strategic minerals.

It is the latest memorandum of understanding on critical raw materials in chronological order the EU promoted with global partners after the first Action Plan and then the Critical Raw Materials Act of March 2023. A strategy that counts as close allies in this field Canada and Ukraine (from 2021); Kazakhstan and Namibia (from 2022); Argentina, Chile, Zambia, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Greenland (from 2023); and Rwanda, Norway, Uzbekistan (from this year), and now Australia. “This partnership aims to support several common objectives, while based on mutual benefits,” the European Commission said after the signing by its Executive Vice President and Trade Commissioner, Valdis Dombrovskis, and Internal Market Commissioner, Thierry Breton. At this point, a roadmap with concrete actions will be jointly developed to put the partnership into practice, over the next six months. Brussels sees the partnership with Australia as another milestone in diversifying supplies of materials needed for the green and digital transition and not repeating the same mistake as with Russian gas. The partnership will also help develop Australia’s domestic critical minerals sector, as it covers the entire value chain of critical and strategic minerals from exploration, mining, processing, refining, recycling, and treatment of extractive waste. In addition to jointly developing projects along the entire value chain, further cooperation on “common interests” will be explored, including reducing environmental impact, benefiting local communities, and pushing innovative digital mining technologies and services.

With the understanding that the big deal remains the free trade agreement, to which Brussels has never closed the door, the Memorandum of Understanding signed today between the EU and Australia charts the way for resuming and deepening contacts, starting with the framework on areas of cooperation for the creation of “secure and sustainable” value chains of critical and strategic minerals. First and foremost is the integration of the same value chains, “including networking, joint facilitation of projects (e.g., via joint ventures), creation of new business models and promotion and facilitation of trade and investment linkages.” The second area is that of cooperation on research and innovation, “including on minerals knowledge and the minimization of environmental and climate footprint,” but also for the promotion of “high” environmental, social, and governance standards and practices, especially on “full respect for workers’ conditions and safety.”