Facing climate change and the need to increase the share of renewable energy, the European Union set strategies to ensure Europe’s autonomy in supply of critical and strategic materials. To this day, most of the raw materials are produced and imported from third countries, undermining Europe’s autonomy in supply. Thus, the Critical Raw Materials Act sets objectives on extraction, transformation, recycling, and diversification of imports of critical and strategic raw materials.
A few weeks ago, the European Court of Auditors published a special report “Critical raw materials for the energy transition, Not a rock-solid policy”. This report highlights several weaknesses in the implementation of EU policies:
- Weak strategic focus and foundation – non-binding act
- Diversification of critical raw materials supply limited – still dependent on third countries
- Persistent structural constraints for European’s critical raw material production
- Sustainability potential of critical raw materials still underexploited
- Delays in obtaining permits, impacting implementation of strategic projects
In this sense, MINEYE provides a concrete response to the weaknesses identified in the report and contributes to the development of a more robust, transparent and effective European raw materials policy. MINEYE transforms a problem of dependency and uncertainty into a challenge of knowledge and control.
