At the time of going to press on Tuesday 31 March, the Cyprus Presidency of the Council of the EU had yet to decide whether or not to include, on the agenda for the meeting of the permanent representatives of the Member States on 1 April, the draft Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) establishing a strategic partnership on critical minerals with the United States and an EU-US Action Plan for Critical Minerals Supply Chain Resilience.
Scheduled for 27 March, then envisaged for 1 April, the file was still under discussion late on Tuesday 31. The Presidency was conducting various contacts, both with the Commission and the United States, but also between the EU27. At the end of January, the Member States had authorised the Commission to negotiate such a mechanism; the next step requested of the Permanent Representatives is to authorise the Commission to sign this MoU and the associated Action Plan.
This MoU is organised into four sections (context and principles; scope of the partnership; objectives and activities; legal status and general provisions), according to a document seen by Agence Europe.
“Critical minerals are no longer just commodities; they are strategic assets integral to national security, industrial competitiveness, energy challenges and geopolitics”, states the preamble.
The two parties “intend to support the supply of raw and processed critical minerals, crucial to the commercial and defence industries of both jurisdictions. By building a diversified, secure, and sustainable supply-chain network, the participants aim to safeguard their technological future (including energy, automotive, and electronics sectors), defence readiness, and economic resilience against external disruptions”.
In terms of scope, the MoU and Action Plan cover “critical minerals along the entire value chain and life-cycle management, including exploration, extraction, processing, refining, recycling and recovery in accordance with applicable domestic laws and international obligations”.
While part of the initiative is aimed at cutting dependence on China for critical raw materials and building a network of reliable allies aligned with the same objectives, the document includes a section on ‘securing diversified supply’ to identify and jointly develop innovative, sustainable and responsible projects relating to critical minerals of mutual interest, within the EU, the United States or third countries. These projects are expected to generate finished products for buyers in the United States and the European Union.
A section is also devoted to fair competition: the participants “recognise the need to secure their critical minerals supply chains by addressing non-market policies and unfair trade practices and by promoting a market environment where the valuation of critical minerals reflects the real costs of responsible extraction, processing, and trade to the highest standards of transparency and sustainability”.
The text also sets out provisions for cooperation on export restrictions, as envisaged by the US and the EU in July 2025 when the so-called Turnberry Agreement was signed: the EU and the US intend to share information on export restrictions on critical minerals imposed by third countries, their impact and their commitment to these countries, the document states.
The Memorandum of Understanding also covers the regulatory authorisation process. “The Participants are expected to take measures to accelerate, streamline, or reduce permitting timelines and processes to obtain permits for critical minerals mining, separation, and processing within their respective regulatory systems, consistent with applicable law”.
Price floors. Among other things, the action plan insists on developing “a plurilateral trade initiative with like-minded partners on trade in critical minerals which would support the objective of securing mutual supply chain resilience for critical minerals” at a time when China is also accused of manipulating prices.
This includes discussing the feasibility and development of coordinated trade policies and mechanisms, including trade and market measures based on reference prices “such as border-adjusted price floors, standards-based markets, price gap subsidies, or offtake-agreements, focusing in the first instance on mutually agreed select critical minerals and associated supply chains”.
Finally, the action plan refers to cooperation in stockpiling. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)