Ref. Ares(2023)1799490 - 13/03/2023
Ref. Ares(2023)1224824 - 20/02/2023
KEY MESSAGES/SPEAKING POINTS
Introductory remarks
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Let me start by thanking BusinessEurope for co-organising this very
timely roundtable. Our economic ambitions depend to a large extent
on good, targeted cooperation between political and business
leaders.
So if we are to achieve the green and digital transitions, while
maintaining our competitive advantage on the journey towards a net-
zero economy, we need to have these conversations
now.
And we are not only talking about the civilizational challenge of
climate change – we are also dealing with economic headwinds and
growing geopolitical tensions.
In this scenario, moving towards a net zero economy is of the utmost
importance, and Critical Raw Materials are essential for this
transformation to happen.
This is why the President of the Commission announced a Critical
Raw Materials package during the last State of the Union address.
It will include a
legislative proposal on measures to build and
strengthen the critical raw materials value chain, as well as
a
Communication presenting a comprehensive approach to ensure
secure and sustainable sourcing of critical raw materials, in particular
from third countries.
Scaling up and speeding up primary and secondary raw materials
supply in the EU will contribute to this objective. However, boosting
internal capacities will not be sufficient to achieve self-reliance even
in the long term.
Instead, the EU needs to focus on diversifying its imports from
reliable partners, building win-win relationships with resource-rich
countries.
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Today,
I would like to hear your views on how we can make this
objective a reality. Before giving you the floor, I would like to briefly
outline our ideas and share some questions:
First, while demand for critical raw materials has never been higher
and could increase ten-fold in the next decade, their supply is
confronted with greater geopolitical, as well as environmental and
social challenges.
These challenges being global, we need a global response. We need
to work with allies and partners to
foster sustainable investment in
the extraction and processing of critical raw materials, both
inside and outside the EU. This is why we have announced the
intention to
establish a Critical Raw Materials Club with reliable
partners.
These steps will complement our ongoing international work to help
companies diversify their supply. Our
trade and investment
agreements ensure transparency, predictability and legal certainty.
As economic operators, I know you will agree this is essential.
Our recent agreements with Chile, Mexico, New Zealand and the
United Kingdom already include a dedicated Energy and Raw
Materials chapter. Negotiations are ongoing with Australia and
Indonesia, two important and resource-rich countries.
Sustainable Investment Facilitation Agreements can also
contribute, by channelling sustainable investment towards domestic
production capacity. This is a precondition for industrialising and
diversifying economies in Africa and other parts of the developing
world.
We will also seek to expand our network of
strategic raw materials
partnerships. These provide a political framework and concrete
bilateral cooperation platform with third countries.
We will also use the
Global Gateway to its full extent. This should
help to boost and leverage private sector investment projects along
the critical raw materials value chain in developing countries.
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Second, we must ensure
full respect for labour rights and
environmental protection.
As we strive to improve the security and affordability of supply, we
must in tandem mitigate any adverse impacts from sourcing and
investments.
This applies both within the EU as well as in third
countries. Doing so will preserve our commitment to developing win-
win solutions with partners, while supporting their own sustainable
transitions.
Over the years, the EU has developed a mix of voluntary and
mandatory actions to promote sustainability, in particular on raw
materials supply chains. We will continue to implement and promote
this approach externally.
Third, we will propose a set of regulatory measures to improve the
EU’s monitoring, risk management and governance of critical raw
materials. The legislative proposal will in particular aim to identify
strategic projects inside and outside the EU, ensuring better
access to funding and streamlined permitting procedures for EU
projects. We also intend to
promote circularity in the critical raw
material value chain, including by recovering critical raw materials
from extractive waste.
Now, ladies and gentlemen, I am keen to hear from you. Today’s
meeting is an opportunity for me to learn from your experience and
listen to your expectations in relation to the package that the
Commission will present on 14 March.
I am especially interested in hearing your views on:
[
Discussion point 1 – Global Diversification]
o The external policy tools that we should develop to ensure
global
diversification of raw materials supply, and reduce the risk of
over-dependence;
[
Discussion point 2 – Domestic Extraction/processing &sustainability]
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o While the supply chains of Critical Raw Materials must respond to
our climate ambitions and needs, this growth must not come at
the expense of environmental, or human health. I would like to
hear
your
recommendations
for
how
to
ensure
that
environmental, social, governance and labour standards are
properly addressed in our initiative.
[
Discussion point 3 – Monitoring & Governance]
o Finally, this market is developing fast, and it is exposed to risk
and volatility. With this initiative, we aim at addressing the risk of
shortages in a crisis situation. Here, there is a case to strengthen
our monitoring tools and coordinate better at EU level.
o The questions we need to ask ourselves are the following: how
can we mitigate? What role should business and governments
play in
monitoring activities and risk management? And what
kind of
governance model should be privileged?
With these questions to help guide our discussion, I now turn the
floor over to you. I look forward to hearing your views and insights.
Thank you.
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KEY POINTS FOR EACH OF THE THREE SESSIONS
Agenda Item no. 1 - Global diversification
As indicated by several of you, to further enable companies to
diversify their supply of Critical Raw Materials, trade and investment
conditions are essential. Trade agreements can offer a solid legal
basis to enable supply diversification.
In the same vein, the EU needs to continue developing more strategic
partnerships, but also consider how to make our relationships with
existing trading partners more sustainable and resilient in this sector.
Agenda Item no. 2 - Domestic extraction/processing &sustainability
The Commission intends to strengthen sustainable extraction and
processing of raw materials in the EU. To this end, we are looking at
streamlining and facilitating permits procedures. This should help to
ensure legal certainty, shorter procedures and clarity in interpretation
of potentially conflicting policy objectives.
Balance between the protection of the environment and sustainable
extractive activities should be found. We must work together to
improve the social acceptance of mining and processing activities in
Europe.
Agenda Item no. 3 - Monitoring and Governance
We heard your views on additional administrative burdens for
business and the need to make sure that these instruments do not
overlap.
The proposal should indeed not include a top-down governance
model, putting unnecessary obligations on economic operators. We
should work together to identify the main challenges and viable
solutions. Creation and implementation of industrial policy without
guidance and expertise from industry is prone to be ineffective.
Public monitoring activities to inform companies about risk of supply
chains disruption can be very helpful.
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However, we need to be careful with any mandatory obligations that
could follow from public monitoring.
The Commission already proposed some far-reaching provisions on
monitoring of supply chains in the Chips Act or the Single Market
Emergency Instrument. These are the subject of intense discussions.
The upcoming Act will also address similar challenges for Critical
Raw Materials, and should propose actions to improve the resilience
of EU industry to supply disruptions.
We will need to ensure the right balance in governance and
respecting the principle of subsidiarity, but also avoid unnecessary
administrative burden.
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Concluding remarks
I would like to thank you for this discussion and for the different
papers that Business Europe, and its Members, provided on this
topic. We took careful note of all your comments. This is not a one-off
discussion and we need to continue our engagement.
The time for action is now. We need to do it for our long-term
competitiveness and to maintain our open strategic autonomy in a
fast-changing and increasingly fragmented geo-political environment.
The best way forward is to strengthen domestic measures, in tandem
with developing predictable and stable trade relations and long-term
strategic partnerships with third countries.
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