European Innovation Partnership on Raw Materials

The new mandates of the EIP groups have been recently renewed and are available in the public site of RegExpt. Check out the new members of the High Level Steering Group with its Sherpa sub-group and the Commission operational expert group!

Should you have any question, please contact GROW-EIP-RAW-MATERIALS@ec.europa.eu

The sixth edition of the "Raw Materials Week" will take place from 15 to 19 November 2021 as hybrid and online events, gathering a wide range of stakeholders discussing policies and initiatives in the field of raw materials. The 2021 Raw Materials Week will be centred around the eight annual High-level Conference of the European Innovation Partnership (EIP) on raw materials and (co-)organise several complementary events addressing the latest news on raw materials in the EU, including: Critical Raw Materials, Trends in innovation and Skills for raw materials, EU Horizon technology success stories, EU-Canada Partnership, UNECE Resource management. Check out the programme in the Raw Materials Week website!

If you wish to advertise your event in our website, please send us the title of the event, abstract and contact/website for registration to GROW-RAW-MATERIALS-WEEK@ec.europa.eu. Please be aware that no side event will be acknowledged in parallel to the High Level Conference on Wednesday 17 November.

Last September, the Commission adopted the Critical Raw Materials action plan, presenting ten concrete actions to tackle vulnerabilities in the raw materials supply chains. The action plan announced that the EU should engage in strategic partnerships with resource-rich third countries, making use of all external policy instruments and respecting its international obligations.

The partnership with Canada received the political endorsement at the EU-Canada summit on the 14-15 June. The partnership aims at advancing the value, security, and sustainability of trade and investment into resilient raw materials and downstream value chains across both Canada and the EU. The areas for cooperation are: Integration of Canada-EU Raw Materials Value Chains; Science, Technology and Innovation and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Criteria, and Standards.

On 13 July, the Ukraine Government will host a High-Level Conference on Strategic Partnership between the European Union and Ukraine on Critical Raw Materials and Batteries. The Conference represents an important milestone in our joint efforts to foster enhanced cooperation on climate change, environmental protection and decarbonisation of energy and mobility systems. The high potential of CRMs reserves in Ukraine, together with the need for a modernisation of its extractive industry underpinned by an improving legal and administrative framework for investors, represent a solid base for a closer cooperation.
During the Conference EU Vice-President M. Šefčovič and Prime Minister D. Shmyhal will sign a Memorandum of Understanding that sets the political framework and endorse a partnership Roadmap that contains concrete joint actions reflecting similar cooperation topics as we have agreed with Canada.

More information about the Conference and registration.

On 5 May 2021, the Commission adopted the Communication “Updating the 2020 Industrial Strategy: towards a stronger Single Market for Europe's recovery”. It reflects on key lessons learned during the last year, notably the need to reduce strategic dependencies, strengthen own capacities and the single market, and shape the green and digital transition. An accompanying staff working document analyses strategic dependencies in each product group and provides a deep dive chapter on dependencies in the raw materials area, discussing ways forward including strategic partnerships and the work of the European Raw Materials Alliance.

The Annual Single Market Report 2021 presents a first analysis of the challenges faced by 14 industrial ecosystems and suggest that these analyses can serve to co-create, in partnership with industry, public authorities, social partners and other stakeholders, transition pathways for ecosystems. Priority should be given to the ecosystems and sectors that face the most important challenges, such as energy-intensive industries, construction, tourism and mobility. The pathways should take into account relevant inputs and will offer a better bottom-up understanding of the scale, cost, long term benefits and conditions of the required action to accompany the twin transition for the most relevant ecosystems, leading to an actionable plan in favour of sustainable competitiveness.