The EU wants to cut reliance on powers like China for mineral supplies by the end of the decade. As geopolitical tensions boil, EU Decoded asks whether the bloc can keep up with its competitors.
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00:00Some are calling them the new oil of the world economy.
00:18These minerals and metals are essential for producing new technologies like microchips, electric cars and solar panels.
00:27And governments are scrambling to secure them.
00:31China is using its market dominance to weaken its rivals.
00:36U.S. President Donald Trump has invoked wartime powers to boost production and has even threatened to seize mineral-rich Canada and Greenland.
00:47But where is the European Union in the global race for raw materials?
00:52We break it down in EU Decoded.
00:54The EU has listed 34 critical raw materials it considers essential.
01:0017 are prioritized as strategic.
01:03They include cobalt, lithium, manganese and nickel, used in electric vehicles, and gallium, copper and silicon metal, used in solar panels.
01:12The Critical Raw Materials Act sets targets for the EU to extract 10%, process 40% and recycle 25% of the strategic materials it consumes by the end of this decade.
01:25Part of the EU strategy means mining, but also refining and recycling more raw materials at home in Europe.
01:34The European Commission recently selected 47 new strategic projects in 13 EU countries.
01:41But how do Europeans feel about the prospect of mining returning to their backyards?
01:47Unabhängigkeit finde ich nicht verkehrt, wenn man anbetracht der Abhängigkeit jetzt, glaube ich, auch gerade das Thema mit den Abhängigkeiten von chinesischen Erden und so.
01:55Ja, ich befĂĽrchte, dass das Bergrecht so gestaltet wird, dass die Gemeinden wenigstenspruchsrecht haben, beziehungsweise Mitspracherecht.
02:03Und ich meine, BrĂĽssel ist weit weg von irgendeiner kleinen Posemuckel-Gemeinde.
02:07Oh, also ich meine, es hört sich danach an, dass vielleicht Arbeitsplätze geschaffen werden können, was gut ist?
02:12C'è il fatto che ci sono i cinesi che fanno come gli pare, per cui, ma anche gli stessi americani, poi non parliamo dell'Africa, dei cinesi in Africa, per cui, io dico che, secondo me, smettiamo di farlo, perché c'è qualcuno che si sporca le mani e non per il nostro conto.
02:29Robert Hodgson is our senior energy and environment reporter, and he's been following the Critical Raw Materials Act for Euronews.
02:46Robert, thank you for joining us.
02:47First, can you tell us why there's such a rush here in Brussels to both mine more at home, but also to diversify Europe's mineral suppliers?
02:56Two reasons. First of all, demand for these minerals is rising, because they're needed for the energy transition.
03:04Modern technology and now weapons is becoming a more significant factor.
03:08The other problem that Europe has is that over years they've developed dependencies on other countries for the supply of these things, that not much is produced in Europe.
03:16Brussels also is looking further afield. It's been running this diplomatic campaign to strike agreements with various third countries.
03:24They say these are like-minded third countries. Is this campaign to strike these deals working?
03:31Well, the diplomatic offensive began in 2021 with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with Canada, which I suppose you can quite happily call like-minded.
03:40And it's also a powerhouse of minerals production.
03:44They've followed with several others. The next one was Ukraine, and that was signed just six months before the Russian invasion.
03:50Since then, they've built up the number of these MOUs to 14, and they have other countries, including Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo.
03:59And it's becoming more evident that there's a problem around the sort of moral questions around whether we should be doing business with a certain country.
04:07Rwanda has come into focus recently because the Rwandaan military has been supporting rebel groups in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.
04:16And there's been credible reports from the UN and NGOs that minerals are being smuggled across the border into Rwanda and then exported to Europe.
04:24And these are sort of known as conflict minerals.
04:27You can see the same moral questions arising in Ukraine because the EU has its memorandum signed with Ukraine, but at the same time, the Trump administration has been pushing Ukraine to sign a deal with the U.S. in exchange for continued military support.
04:42Well, they want access, essentially open access to all of Ukraine's mineral wealth.
04:46Thirteen EU countries have been selected for new raw materials projects, but domestic measures aren't enough.
04:52The EU has also struck partnerships on minerals with 14 world countries, including Australia, Chile, and the DRC.
05:02This is to reduce dependencies.
05:04For example, the EU relies on China for 100% of its rare earths, Turkey for 98% of boron, and South Africa for 71% of platinum.
05:15Joining me now to delve a little bit deeper into the Critical Raw Materials Act is Eduardo Rigetti, who is a researcher in energy resources and climate change at the CEPs think tank here in Brussels.
05:28The Critical Raw Materials Act was conceived to kind of support and underpin the European Green Deal, but now we're seeing a push to rearm Europe.
05:36Does this mean also that the act is becoming even more critical and strategic for the EU?
05:41Yeah, it is true that the aerospace and defense sectors also heavily depend on critical raw materials.
05:48Applications such as aircrafts or vessels and ammunition, as well as satellites and other space applications, all require materials like rare earths, graphite, cobalt, and others.
06:00One of the goals of the act is to actually increase the amount of critical raw materials that the EU recycles by the end of this decade.
06:08If this is a possibility and an attractive route for the EU, why are we not doing more of this, the recycling, already?
06:17For most of these materials, recycling rates are still relatively low, and this is because from one side we do not have enough technologies that have reached the hand of life yet,
06:27but at the same time it's due to other more structural issues related to, for instance, technical issues with recycling, as well as the cost of recycling.
06:34Given that there is a potential trade war heating up between the two biggest world economies right now,
06:42do you think the EU needs to consider other policy options to address its vulnerability when it comes to sourcing raw materials?
06:50Now, there are several elements within the act that go in that direction, from the improvement of risk monitoring efforts, including through stress testing,
07:00but also the requirements for large companies using these materials.
07:03Now, all these elements, together with other medium to long-term strategies, such as setting up partnerships with resource-rich countries,
07:11can help mitigate supply risks, but at the same time, of course, we know there's no one single silver bullet,
07:18and even setting up these systems will take time, especially in the EU.
07:22In an energy transition and a global arms race, the demand for minerals will only increase,
07:29but competition is aggressive and could revive historic inequalities.
07:34Trump is demanding access to Greenland, Canada and Ukraine's mineral wealth.
07:38In places like Myanmar and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the mineral rush continues to drive conflict.
07:46The European Union still says it's counting on a secure and sustainable supply.