Germany and France issued a joint statement that presented the key initiatives of the "Critical Raw Materials Act" being pursued by the EU. Most of the member countries expressed a positive response.
Von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, predicted that demand for critical raw materials will increase by 500% until 2030.Shepresented theAct as a key policy task for the next few years.
The COVID-19 crisis and the war in Ukraine exacerbated the vulnerability of energy and critical raw material supply chains, breaking away from Russia's energy and China's minerals dependence. EU started to focus on securing strategic autonomy of their own
According to the statement, ‘Critical Raw Materials Act’ is currently in the legislative process, proposing△establishing mechanism for an early warning system and crisis management△expanding criticalraw material supply chain andrecycling investment △securing fair global competitive environment
The early warning system, crisis management and recycling investment are similar to the European Semiconductor Act, which includes‘easing of subsidies for important semiconductor projects’and ‘raising funds to expand regional production’.It proposed creating investment funds to expand mining, production and recycling capabilities, discovering strategically important projects in the entire value chain, ranging from mining, processing and recycling of the important mineral raw materials by 2050.
EU Council discussed the position of the two countries on the 29th. Most member countries and executive committee expressed a positive position on the requirements of the position.