On Tuesday 25 March, the Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy, Stéphane Séjourné, presented a list of 47 strategic projects for the extraction, processing or recycling of critical raw materials across 13 Member States. The European Commission received 170 project proposals and selected 47 of them, applying criteria relating to security of supply in the EU, environmental, social and governance criteria, feasibility and cross-border benefits.
All of the selected projects extract, transform or recycle raw materials designated as strategic in the ‘Critical Raw Material Act’ (see EUROPE 13292/6). France is the most successful country, with eight projects in the country.
Lithium extraction sites are widely present in several countries (France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, the Czech Republic and Finland). According to a European official, the projects selected could cover 80% of the EU’s lithium needs. The European Commission’s objective is to ensure maximum European supply for battery value chains. A total of 31 projects focus on raw materials relevant to battery manufacture: lithium, cobalt, nickel, manganese and graphite.
Raw materials processing projects are not to be outdone, since they relate to 24 of the 47 sites selected. “This is very important, because it is often at this stage that our main dependencies arise. Take lithium, for example. Europe extracts lithium, but this lithium then leaves Europe to be refined in China. As a result, we find ourselves 100% dependent on China for a material we already have”, explained Vice-President Séjourné.
The recycling stage involves ten projects, four of which are located in Italy.
Out of the 170 proposals received in total, 49 came from non-EU countries. Several of them should be selected in the coming weeks, announced Stéphane Séjourné.
In addition, a second call for proposals will be opened this year so that specific projects that were not selected in the first round, but which have potential, can be presented again, explained the Commissioner.
See the list of projects selected so far: https://aeur.eu/f/g3q (Original version in French by Léa Marchal)