A partnership among equals? – How to strengthen EU strategic partnerships on critical raw materials

Critical raw materials are an indispensable part of the EU's plans to deliver on its core agenda: The green transformation. Currently, the EU imports a significant proportion of these minerals, often from countries with low levels of governance and high environmental and human rights risks. While the EU is developing targets for increased procurement within Europe and for a more circular economy, it will continue to rely heavily on exports from third countries and sees the need to strengthen its global commitment to develop and diversify investment, production and trade with reliable partners. To support this, the EU intends to intensify the development of strategic partnerships with resource-rich countries. The upcoming Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) - currently under discussion by the EU institutions - will further develop this concept of strategic partnerships and will include a set of criteria against which each strategic partnership will be assessed.

This new joint briefing looks at how to ensure that these partnerships benefit local development, how to increase transparency and how to reduce overall demand for metals. It also explores how to respect and uphold environmental sustainability and the rights of local communities and indigenous peoples. It assesses the existing strategic partnerships for critical raw materials as well as the criteria for strategic partnerships in the draft CRMA.

The report concludes that partnerships need to be significantly improved if they are to achieve the EU’s objectives and makes recommendations for the future.

More about the Critical Raw Materials Act and our raw material policy work in general can be found here.

You can find out more about the EU Raw Materials Coalition here.