Brussels/Berlin (Reuters) – The EU Commission wants to strengthen European industry with climate-friendly technologies.
The Brussels authority wanted to present several building blocks for this on Thursday. In the area of critical raw materials, the commission announced the goal at midday of reducing ten percent of its own requirements by 2030. It is about lithium, cobalt and rare earths. Recycling should provide another 15 percent. By 2030, 40 percent of the company’s own requirements should then be covered in processing. In the future, no third country should be solely responsible for more than 65 percent of an important raw material.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in the European Parliament on Wednesday that global investment in the transition to a climate-friendly economy should triple by 2030. Around one trillion dollars was already mobilized for this purpose last year. “The race is on.” The European industry has to assert itself against the USA and China in particular.
The raw materials play an important role. They often come from China or countries where companies from the People’s Republic have a strong presence. In the case of rare earths, the Chinese market share is almost 90 percent. With lithium, which is important for batteries, it is 60 percent.
“The targeted acceleration of the approval process to a maximum of two years for strategic raw material projects in mining, processing and recycling by 2030 would be a quantum leap compared to the current average of ten to 15 years,” said Wolfgang Niedermark, member of the executive board of the German industry association BDI. Success will be decided in the 27 EU member states. “It is often the municipalities that have to ensure the necessary social acceptance for projects on site.” Europe must speed up raw materials. Niedermark criticized the fact that there should not be a separate raw materials investment fund. “This is too little.” In the US, for example, mining companies and refiners of critical minerals could write off 10 percent of their costs under the IRA subsidy package. “From the point of view of German industry, this instrument is also worth imitating for Europe.”
(Report by Philip Blenkinsop and Christian Krämer, edited by Christian Rüttger. If you have any questions, please contact our editorial team at [email protected] (for politics and the economy) or [email protected] (for companies and markets) .)