Dec 18 Reuters The European Union39;s law to guarantee a supply of minerals crucial for its green and digital transitions and to end its dependence on Chinese supply will enter force early next year after securing final approval this month.

The Critical Raw Materials Act CRMA is designed to ensure Europe is a manufacturing base for electric vehicles, wind turbines and other green goods and reduce its reliance on China for such products and the key minerals they contain.

Under the act, the European Union has identified a list of 34 critical raw materials, which are important for the EU economy and face a risk of disruption, of which 17 are designated strategic because of their importance and global demandsupply imbalances.

The strategic materials include base metals aluminium, copper and nickel, along with key battery material lithium and rare earth elements used in permanent magnets for wind turbines or in electric vehicles. The list can be found on page 135 of the final text.

RATIONALE

The CRMA is the result of painful lessons the European Union has learned during the COVID19 pandemic when supply of essential goods dried up and following Russia39;s invasion of Ukraine, when Moscow turned off its natural gas taps.

For critical materials, the EU is reliant on China which dominates global processing such as 90 of all rare earths and 60 for lithium.

The bloc39;s 39;derisking39; strategy aims to reduce dependence on China, which has this year placed restrictions on…