Aiming to break free from China’s grip on rare earths, Brussels is working on an industrial strategy to boost European production.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced new measures to tackle the EU’s structural weakness in rare earths, exacerbated by China’s recent restrictions on these critical materials.
“Whether on energy or raw materials, defence or digital, Europe has to strive for its independence,” she said at a conference in Berlin on Saturday.
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Von der Leyen unveiled a plan dubbed “RESourceEU”– mirroring REPowerEU, an initiative to phase out Russian fossil fuel imports.
The announcement came after she hinted at possible trade retaliation against Beijing’s tightened export controls. She warned that 90% of the EU’s consumption of rare earth magnets comes from China.
After the speech, Industry Commissioner Stéphane Séjourné posted on social media that the Commission will “create a joint purchasing and strategic stockpiling centre for critical raw materials, inspired by the Japanese model.”
That information emerges one day after Euractiv reported that the Commission had visited Japan more than any other non-EU country this year, with a view to learning from Tokyo about supply chain resilience.
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Von der Leyen said the plan would boost investment in raw material production and processing and speed up work on partnerships with third countries.
She pointed to Ukraine, Australia, Canada, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Chile, and Greenland.
Under the Critical Raw Materials Act, Brussels set 2030 targets for EU production capacities, aiming to keep any third country from supplying more than 65% of the EU’s raw material demand.
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(cp)
AloJapan.com