Parliamentary State Secretary Brantner welcomes European Commission’s proposal for a Critical Raw Materials Act

Today, the European Commission presented a legislative package on raw materials, the European  Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA). The CRMA aims to secure a long-term supply of critical and strategic raw materials and reduce problematic dependencies, thereby creating a new strategic basis for Europe’s supply of raw materials.

Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action Dr Franziska Brantner said: "The European raw materials initiative is very important and urgently needed. We need a secure and sustainable supply of raw materials for the transition to climate neutrality and for Europe to remain an attractive centre for industrial activity. The targets set by the Commission to be attained by 2030 are very ambitious – and this is a good thing."

The transition to greenhouse-gas neutral technologies is generating much higher demand for specific metallic raw materials and industrial minerals for electric vehicles, heat pumps, wind turbines, solar modules etc. – the faster the transition to these technologies takes place worldwide, the faster the global demand for the necessary raw materials will grow.

Against this background, Germany and Europe aim to deal with these raw materials as efficiently as possible and keep them in the cycle as best as possible. The CRMA is to strengthen the supply chains for strategic and critical raw materials, diversify imports, expand EU monitoring, enhance the EU’s resilience in case of short-term supply shortages, and strengthen the circular economy in the EU. It also provides for compliance with high Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) criteria.

The European Commission proposes a number of measures to attain the targets set out in the CRMA. These include the expansion of processing and recycling capacities in the EU, an increase in raw materials extraction in the EU, the expansion of strategic partnerships, and the conducting of stress tests by the Commission. In addition, authorisation procedures are to be accelerated while maintaining high environmental standards.

Franziska Brantner said: "The measures proposed help to strengthen the resilience of the supply chains in order to safeguard the production capacities that are necessary for us to attain our climate targets. The Commission proposal takes up many aspects of the Franco-German positions which we had forwarded to the EU. I am also pleased that the Commission addresses several approaches contained in the key elements for a sustainable and resilient supply of raw materials that we presented in January. This provides tailwind for our national efforts. We will play a very active part in elaborating the further details of the CRMA and work together constructively with the Commission to meet the objectives."