Brussels, 24/05/2013 (Agence Europe) - European Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship Antonio Tajani defended his strategy for raw materials on the ground on the fourth European Minerals Day.
Inaugurating the fourth European Minerals Day - Friday 24 May - in the underground mine of calcium carbonate in Vipiteno (Italy), Tajani reiterated the importance of raw materials for European industry - at least 30 million jobs and 70% of manufacturing output depend on them. Tajani also gave an outline of the European targets to be reached by 2020 in order to reduce Europe's dependence on mineral imports from third countries.
In February, the European Commission - in cooperation with the member states and stakeholders - launched a new initiative to enable the EU to become a world leader by 2020 in the exploration, extraction, treatment, recycling and substitution of raw materials. The initiative is called the European innovation partnership on raw materials, and an implementation plan for it must be approved by mid-July by a pilot group chaired by Tajani and his counterparts for research, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, and the environment, Janez Potocnik.
“Industrial minerals are essential not only for the majority of the manufacturing sector and the downstream industry, but also in engineering environment, such as for the treatment of water and renewable energy”, the Commission states in a press release. The fourth European Minerals Day on Friday featured initiatives across Europe to raise awareness of the importance of industrial minerals both in everyday life and in the European economy as a whole. The event was organised by the industrial associations Cembureau, EuroGeoSurveys, Eurometaux, Euromines, EuSalt and IMA-Europe - in collaboration with the European Technology Platform for Sustainable Mineral Technologies. (EH/transl.fl)