At the Ecofin Council meeting in Luxembourg on Tuesday 17 October, the French Director General of the Treasury, Emmanuel Moulin, reiterated his call for the inclusion in the EU taxonomy of the mining, processing, first transformation and recycling of critical raw materials before the end of the current legislative cycle. He was supported by his colleagues from Sweden, the Czech Republic, Germany, Finland and Austria (see EUROPE 13223/33).
“This must be carried out in accordance with the strictest environmental standards”, Mr Moulin explained during the public debate. He also stressed that this addition was “in line with the political objectives that led us to adopt the Critical Raw Materials Act”.
Mairead McGuinness, the European Commissioner for Financial Services, has approved the inclusion of mining in the taxonomy. “We need to do it with all these strict criteria to allow it to be put it in the taxonomy”, she replied.
“We have tasked the current platform on sustainable finance to develop taxonomy criteria for mining and refining building on the work which has already begun with the previous platform because this is a major priority”, she added.
Ms McGuinness was unable to give an exact timetable, but committed to providing one at the next meeting. (Original version in French by Anne Damiani)