On Wednesday 4 March, the representatives of the EU Member States will be invited to adopt their negotiating mandate with the European Parliament on the revision of the Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA), Regulation 2024/1252, proposed on 3 December as part of the ReSourcesEU plan (see EUROPE 13799/2).
The purpose of this revision is to “streamline, clarify and simplify some provisions related to the governance structure of the original Act. It also seeks to improve circularity in order to increase recycling capacity and to strengthen the secondary market for critical raw materials”, explains the Cyprus Presidency of the Council of the EU in the draft mandate.
For the Commission, the main aim is to encourage companies to better anticipate sudden supply disruptions, as was the case in 2025, when China suspended global exports of critical raw materials in retaliation against Washington.
The aim is to convince companies to hold sufficient stocks and to diversify their raw materials suppliers.
On the European Parliament side, Mohammed Chahim (S&D, Dutch) will be responsible for this review on behalf of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE).
“While delegations generally welcomed the proposal and its objectives, some also raised concerns as regards certain provisions of the proposal, notably the provisions related to the empowerments of the Commission and the obligations of the identified large companies”, explains the draft mandate.
Among the changes that the Presidency now considers more or less consensual is one concerning the number of calls for strategic projects: the Commission will be required to organise at least one call per year.
Concerning risk preparedness and the Commission’s identification of large companies operating in the Union that use strategic raw materials, clear language is introduced to require the Commission to consult, in the course of this identification, the Member States concerned and exchange relevant information with it regarding the identified large companies operating in its territory.
The new text aims to better differentiate between the obligations of the selected large companies after the identification of vulnerabilities, and the obligations to take appropriate mitigation measures.
Defence. “In addition, for large companies manufacturing defence products, the Member State will collect the requested information and share it with the Commission. Where disclosure to the Commission of a piece of information would jeopardise its essential interests of security or defence, the Member State may withhold disclosure of this piece of information informing the Commission and explaining the reasons for that”.
Additional safeguards have also been introduced regarding the Commission’s power to adopt delegated acts specifying the risk mitigation measures that large companies must take, including “best endeavours” measures to ensure continuity of production in the event of serious supply disruptions in certain sectors.
These measures must be “proportionate” to the vulnerabilities identified, the text states. And may suggest a maximum level of dependence on a single third country in the supply chain for strategic raw materials, while taking due account of the availability of alternative sources of supply. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)