COLLECTION

Critical Raw Materials

The European Union’s green and digital transitions are fundamentally dependent on a secure supply of Critical Raw Materials (CRMs). These materials form the bedrock of Europe’s industrial competitiveness, climate leadership, and strategic autonomy. However, the quest to end dependency on fossil fuels is creating a new dependency on critical minerals and metals, placing them at the heart of a complex geopolitical landscape.

About
this collection

Our interactive map below details specific Critical Raw Materials (CRM) per geographic areas, minerals extracted, and their critical end-uses, while directly linking these supply chains to our experts’ analysis and policy recommendations. This resource is designed to facilitate a wide analysis for building resilient, and mutually beneficial partnerships in the CRM sector.

Rationale & Regional Scope : This collection launches with a diverse selection of case studies designed to act as a microcosm of the global supply chain. By covering established mining powerhouses, the dominant global processor, and emerging economies in the Global South, we aim to explore how EU strategic instruments, such as the Global Gateway and the Critical Raw Materials Act, must adapt to contrasting local realities, from security imperatives in Ukraine to industrial aspirations in Africa. This initial selection serves as a foundation; the collection is conceived as a living resource and will expand in the coming months to feature additional regions.

The Geopolitics
of Dependency

The EU's primary vulnerability lies not in the global scarcity of minerals, but in the dangerous concentration of their processing and refining, which is overwhelmingly dominated by China. This dominance, however, offers a stark lesson: Beijing's success in vertically integrating infrastructure, finance, and extraction through to downstream manufacturing serves as a strategic playbook. The EU is now attempting to adapt for its own partnerships.

Currently, this concentration creates a strategic choke point, enabling the "weaponisation of dependencies". Beijing escalated a trade clash by announcing sweeping export controls in October 2025, targeting not only an expanded list of rare earth elements to its new export-licensing regime but also computer chips required by carmakers in Europe. These measures, which threatened to halt production in key European industries, showed China's willingness to control the global green technology supply chain.

While China announced a sudden suspension of some of these new controls on November 7, 2025, the volatility underscores the EUs structural predicament: its industrial ambitions remain critically exposed.

This vulnerability was laid bare in late 2025 by a new “Sovereignty Paradox,” in which the EU’s strategic autonomy ambition is increasingly trapped between US industrial policy and Chinese statecraft. While the EU successfully designated its first 47 “Strategic Projects” in March 2025 to boost domestic capacity, a sustained crash in global lithium and nickel prices (down ~80% from peaks) orchestrated by Chinese oversupply among other things, has rendered many Western projects financially precarious.

The EU's Response:
The Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA)

The CRMA is the EU’s core legislative framework to address these vulnerabilities. It establishes clear priorities by defining lists of “critical” and “strategic” materials and sets ambitious benchmarks for 2030 to bolster domestic extraction, processing, and recycling. The Act also introduces “Strategic Projects” which will benefit from streamlined permitting and facilitated access to finance, aiming to de-risk and encourage private investment in European value chains. However, the designation of these projects has triggered immediate “implementation wars,” most notably in Portugal and Serbia, proving that while the CRMA can speed up permits, it cannot fast-track social license.

Beyond Borders:
Strategic Partnerships

Recognising that domestic capacity alone is insufficient, the EU’s strategy has a crucial external dimension. To meet the diversification benchmark of sourcing no more than 65% of any strategic raw material from a single country, the EU is pursuing a proactive “raw materials diplomacy.”

This involves building Strategic Partnerships with producer countries, leveraging trade agreements, and deploying the Global Gateway to finance infrastructure projects that enhance the resilience of global supply chains.

A Development-Centric Approach

For the EU’s strategy to be sustainable, it must transcend a purely extractive logic. Members’ research highlights that a successful approach must align the EU’s quest for security of supply with the development aspirations of its partners.

This means framing the CRM challenge as a shared opportunity, actively supporting local value addition and green industrialisation in resource-rich countries. A partnership that supports African nations moving up the value chain from mining to processing and manufacturing, is not just a development objective but a core, long-term security strategy for the EU.