Czech Business Today

The EU is currently dependent on imports for many raw materials (75% to 100% of supply) and is therefore exposed to vulnerabilities along supply chains and also to significant price volatility. According to the OECD Global Material Resources Outlook to 2060, the world’s use of raw materials is projected to nearly double by 2060 and the use of metals is projected to grow the fastest, for both primary and secondary metals. At the same time, the EU produces less than 5% of world production of mineral RM. China alone provides around 75% of global production capacity of lithium-ion battery cells and hosts the world’s top ten suppliers of photovoltaics (PV) equipment. In contrast, only about 3% of global production capacity of lithium-ion battery cells is in the EU.

On 16 March 2023, the Commission presented its proposal for a new regulation aiming to secure access to critical and strategic raw materials, along with a communication. While the regulation sets a regulatory framework to support the development of domestic capacities and strengthen the sustainability and circularity of the CRM supply chains in the EU, the communication proposes measures to support supply chains’ diversification through new international mutually supportive partnerships.

The general objective of the CRMA is to address the lack of secure and sustainable access to critical raw materials for the EU by increasing EU industry’s awareness and mitigation of risks in the global supply chain, increasing the EU value chain’s capacity in the internal market, and reducing the environmental footprint of the EU’s consumption.  The initiative will help prevent the potential distortion of competition and fragmentation of the Single Market that is likely to result from such uncoordinated actions and maintain a level playing field for businesses within the EU.

THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE:

• welcomes the European Commission’s ambition to prepare a coherent EU policy on critical and strategic raw materials and on the development of value chains in the extractive, refining and recycling industries, in line with the Green Deal objectives and all related legislation;
• calls upon the European Commission to ensure a comprehensive approach with coordinated EU policies to provide regulatory certainty for investments in exploration, extraction, processing,refining and recycling of raw materials their by-products and essential minerals, based on economic and technical feasibility, policy coherence and legal certainty for business operators in these sectors;
• calls for the coordination of RM policy with EU social policies and for the support of EU-wide capacity building in terms of skills for extractive industries, targeting the re-skilling and upskilling of the existing workforce, as well as the development of governance capacity in EU Member States’ public administrations;
• recommends including other materials crucial for green tech/cleantech sectors in the critical and strategic raw materials lists, bearing in mind that such lists shall be regularly updated and based on a thorough, transparent and evidence-based assessment of criticality and/or strategic value, carried out in consultation with industry representatives and experts;
• calls upon the current and new European Commission to ensure access to competitive energy prices and targeted financing for EU extractive industries and recycling, while also ensuring that permitting and licensing procedures for new RM projects are simplified and shortened and any new reporting or auditing requirements for businesses are kept to the minimum necessary.

Source: Marie Zvolská, EESC Member of Employers’ Group