On Monday 9 February, the Cyprus Presidency of the Council of the EU will launch work on the revision of the Critical Raw Materials Act, the CRMA (see EUROPE 13765/6), with a first compromise draft submitted to Member State experts.
Among other things, the REsourcesEU plan provides for the establishment, from 2026, of a centre for critical raw materials (‘CRM Centre’), responsible for assessing critical needs in real time and providing the European Commission and the Member States with an operational overview. The proposal to amend the CRMA, presented on 3 December, also adds actions to be taken by large companies using critical raw materials to limit situations of dependence, with storage plans and vulnerability assessments.
The Commission’s Executive Vice-President, Stéphane Séjourné, had also called on these major companies to play the game and adopt strategies to diversify into raw materials suppliers, even threatening, if necessary, to make this diversification legally compulsory.
This first compromise, as seen by Agence Europe, essentially sets out technical details, in particular on the role of the Commission, which is responsible for intervening in the event of identified failures in supply and which, as a result, has been given wider powers.
Under the 2024 regulation, Member States are required to identify large companies by May 2025 and within 12 months of each update of the list of strategic raw materials.
However, large companies using strategic raw materials may operate in more than one Member State. In order to avoid duplication of the identification of these large companies by the various national administrations and to prevent a risk of fragmentation of the Single Market, the amended act proposes that the Commission should be responsible for identifying these large companies operating in the EU. “During the process of identification of large companies, the Commission should keep informed the Member State where the large company operates to be identified, this to ensure cooperation with national authorities”, the compromise states.
The Commission should continue to monitor the situation and the level of risk preparedness of large companies, ensuring their readiness in case of disruption of their supply chains. To this end, and where it deems it appropriate, the Commission may request information from large undertakings on their compliance and the mitigation measures provided for in this Regulation, the draft states.
The compromise adds that where “significant vulnerabilities are detected, the Commission should provide to the [Critical Raw Materials] Board (bringing together the Commission and Member States) an assessment of the situation based on information at its disposal, among others the trade flows between the Union and third countries and information on the compliance by large companies with their obligation”.
Where significant supply disruption vulnerabilities are identified, the Commission is also empowered to adopt a delegated act specifying the risk mitigation measures to be taken by large undertakings.
“These measures should aim at ensuring the continuity of the production in case of supply disruption, in particular by setting maximum levels of dependence on a single third country in the supply chain for strategic raw materials”. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)