К концу десятилетия ЕС хочет сократить зависимость от таких держав, как Китай, в поставках минерального сырья. В то время как геополитическая напряжённость нарастает, EU DECODED задаётся вопросом, сможет ли блок идти в ногу со своими конкурентами.
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00:00Субтитры делал DimaTorzok
00:30China is using its market dominance to weaken its rivals.
00:36U.S. President Donald Trump has invoked wartime powers to boost production
00:41and 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.
01:00Seventeen are prioritized as strategic.
01:03They include cobalt, lithium, manganese and nickel,
01:06used 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%,
01:17process 40% and recycle 25% of the strategic materials it consumes by the end of this decade.
01:25Part of the EU's 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.
01:40But how do Europeans feel about the prospect of mining returning to their backyards?
01:47Unabhängigkeit finde ich nicht verkehrt, wenn man anbetracht halt der Abhängigkeit jetzt,
01:51ist ja glaube ich auch gerade das Thema mit den Abhängigkeiten von chinesischen Erden und so.
01:55Ja, ich befürchte, dass das Bergrecht so gestaltet wird,
01:59dass die Gemeinden wenigstenspruchsrecht haben, beziehungsweise Mitspracherecht.
02:03Und ich meine, Brüssel ist weit weg von irgendeiner kleinen Posemuckelgemeinde.
02:07Oh, also ich meine, es hört sich danach an, dass vielleicht Arbeitsplätze geschaffen werden können, was gut ist.
02:12Es ist das, dass es die Chinesischen tun, wie sie sehen können, aber auch die Amerikaner selbstverständlich.
02:19Dann sprechen wir nicht von Afrika, von den Chinesischen in Afrika.
02:21Ich denke, dass wir, in my opinion, nicht das tun, weil es jemanden verbrechtet hat,
02:27weil es jemanden verbrechtet hat, wenn es jemanden verbrechtet hat, wenn es jemanden verbrechtet hat.
02:30Ich bin klar, aber es ist aber auch ein starkes Informationskampagnen würde,
02:35auch von einem wirklich scientificen Hinblick auf.
02:37Robert Hodgson ist unser Senior Energy and Environment Reporter,
02:41und er folgt den Critical Raw Materials Act für Euronews.
02:46Robert, danke für uns zu befreundet.
02:47Erstens, kannst du uns wissen, warum es so ein Rutsch hier in Brüssel ist,
02:51zu both mine, mehr zu Hause, aber auch zu diversifizieren Europa's Mineral suppliers?
02:57Two reasons.
02:57Erstens, die Anmeldung für diese Mineralien ist aufzunehmen,
03:01weil sie für die Energie-Transitionen brauchen.
03:04Modernes Technologien und jetzt Weaponsen sind ein wichtiger Faktor.
03:08The other problem that Europe has is that over years they've developed dependencies
03:12on other countries for the supply of these things, that not much is produced in Europe.
03:16Brussels also is looking further afield.
03:19It's been running this diplomatic campaign to strike agreements with various third countries.
03:25They say these are like-minded third countries.
03:28Is 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,
03:37which 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.
03:45The 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.
03:54And 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
04:04around 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
04:13in 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
04:21into 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.
04:33But at the same time, the Trump administration has been pushing Ukraine to sign a deal with the US
04:39in exchange for continued military support.
04:42Well, they want access, essentially open access, to all of Ukraine's mineral wealth.
04:45The EU has also struck partnerships on minerals with 14 world countries, including Australia, Chile and the DRC.
05:01This is to reduce dependencies.
05:03For example, the EU relies on China for 100% of its rare earths, Turkey for 98% of boron and South Africa for 71% of platinum.
05:16Joining me now to delve a little bit deeper into the Critical Role Materials Act is Eduardo Rigetti,
05:21who is a researcher in energy resources and climate change at the CEPs think tank here in Brussels.
05:28The Critical Role Materials Act was conceived to kind of support and underpin the European Green Deal,
05:33but now we're seeing a push to re-arm Europe.
05:36Does this mean also that the Act is becoming even more critical and strategic for the EU?
05:42Yeah, it is true that the aerospace and defense sectors also heavily depend on critical materials.
05:48Applications such as aircrafts or vessels and ammunition,
05:52as 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
06:05that the EU recycles by the end of this decade.
06:09If this is a possibility and an attractive route for the EU,
06:13why are we not doing more of this, the recycling, already?
06:17For most of these materials, recycling rates are still relatively low,
06:20and 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,
06:31technical 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
06:46to address its vulnerability when it comes to sourcing raw materials?
06:51Now, there are several elements within the Act that go in that direction,
06:54from 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,
07:08such as setting up partnerships with resource-rich countries,
07:11can help mitigate supply risks, but at the same time, of course,
07:15we 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,
07:26the demand for minerals will only increase.
07:29But competition is aggressive and could revive historic inequalities.
07:33Trump is demanding access to Greenland, Canada, and Ukraine's mineral wealth.
07:38In places like Myanmar and the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
07:42the mineral rush continues to drive conflict.
07:46The European Union still says it's counting on a secure and sustainable supply.