The EU proposed a new raw materials plan – now member states must deliver
The EU’s new RESourceEU Action Plan marks a long overdue shift in Europe’s approach to raw materials. After decades of non-action, the bloc is finally confronting a structural weakness that has left its industrial base exposed, and its green and digital ambitions at risk. The plan is ambitious, but its success now depends on Member States implementing it with urgency and discipline.
For years, Europe has relied on imported raw materials and foreign refining capacity, outsourcing the very foundations of its industrial competitiveness. The result is bleak: the EU still imports nearly all rare earth magnets, a critical input for electric vehicles, wind turbines, industrial motors, and defense systems. Without rebuilding domestic capacity, Europe’s green and digital transitions will remain vulnerable to geopolitical shocks and supply chain coercion. If the continent wants to remain an industrial power, it must secure the production of the critical raw materials that it desperately needs in the future.
Raw materials finally seen as strategic infrastructure
RESourceEU represents a fundamental reframing. For the first time, the EU is treating raw materials as a strategic infrastructure. The plan directly targets the barriers that have held Europe back: slow and complex permitting, limited access to industrial land, financing gaps, and persistent local resistance to mining and processing projects. Europe can no longer afford these bottlenecks. Industrial resilience is now recognized as essential to climate neutrality, defense autonomy, and digital sovereignty.
Companies like Outokumpu, a European producer of stainless steel and advanced materials, already operate industrial value chains in Europe that combine mining, processing, and recycling under some of the world’s highest environmental and carbon standards, demonstrating that strategic autonomy and sustainability can go hand in hand. Thus, Europe has the potential to lead in low carbon, high standard mining, and refining. What RESourceEU does is bring mining back into Europe’s strategic planning—integrating high environmental standards, circularity, and low carbon production into a coherent industrial strategy.
This transformation is unavoidable. Europe has woken up to the reality that globalization does not guarantee permanent access to low-cost foreign materials. Europe’s faith in the reliability of global markets has unraveled. Greater self-sufficiency is now crucial. Without domestic capacity, Europe cannot control its clean energy technologies, battery industry, or defense supply chains.
The Commission has laid out concrete steps: faster permitting, €3billion in near term financing, a new European Critical Raw Materials Centre, joint purchasing mechanisms, and an EU wide stockpiling system. It also includes export restrictions on critical material waste, stronger recycling incentives, and new partnerships with countries from South Africa to Brazil. Early funding is already flowing to strategic projects such as Vulcan Energy’s lithium extraction in Germany and Greenland Resources’ molybdenum development.
Member States responsible for implementing the plans
Member States play now an important role in implementing the plan and supporting their national industries. While Brussels sets the direction, it is Member States that control the levers that will determine whether projects move forward – or are stalled.
For energy-intensive industries such as steel, predictable permitting, access to industrial land, and a stable investment environment are decisive factors for whether Europe can retain and grow its industrial base. National governments must align permitting and land use planning, avoiding excessive taxation, and actively building public acceptance in line with Europe’s strategic priorities.
For companies investing in low-carbon materials, circular production, and European value chains, execution of RESourceEU will determine whether Europe remains a place where sustainable industry can thrive.