Co-legislators strike a deal for a secure supply of critical raw materials
After three rounds of negotiations, the Parliament and the Council managed to agree on a final text for the Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA). The agreement now needs to be formally endorsed by both institutions In the Parliament, a first vote in the ITRE Committee is already pencilled in for 7 December.
After three rounds of negotiations, the Parliament and the Council managed to agree on a final text for the Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA). The agreement now needs to be formally endorsed by both institutions In the Parliament, a first vote in the ITRE Committee is already pencilled in for 7 December.
The regulation seeks to boost the EU’s competitiveness by facilitating faster and simpler permitting procedures, enabling easier access to financing, streamlining administrative processes, and establishing strategic partnerships with third countries. The text includes measures to increase the EU’s extraction, processing and recycling capacity of raw materials by 2030 with a view to ensuring a secure and diversified supply of critical and strategic raw materials, while also adhering to environmental, social and governance standards.
While the target for recycling the raw materials the EU consumes each year was raised from 15% to 25%, the Commission’s proposed extraction and processing capacity targets were maintained. Similarly, the original goal of not sourcing more than 65% of a strategic raw material from a single country was retained by the co-legislators.
The agreement adds aluminium and synthetic graphite to the list of critical and strategic raw materials, respectively. Moreover, it mandates that the list be updated every three years, as opposed to the original proposal by the Commission, which suggested a four-year interval for updates.. The deal also extends the scope of Strategic Projects to encompass the production of substitutes for strategic raw materials.
The deadlines for the permit-granting process were set to 27 months for extraction projects and 15 months for processing and recycling projects. Strategic extracting projects will benefit from a quick and simplified permit procedure, overseen by a single national contact point.
Additionally, the Act will require large companies that may face shortages of strategic raw materials essential for their operations, such as battery manufacturers, hydrogen producers, renewable energy generators, or aircraft production, to conduct periodic risk assessments of their strategic raw materials supply chain. The Commission will be tasked with presenting a report on the anticipated consumption of each critical raw material for the next 30 years, 18 months after the entry into force of the Act.
Parliament and Council must now formally approve the agreement before it can be published in the Official Journal.
DeHavilland