The COVID-19 pandemic has forced us to re-evaluate interconnections in the global economy. Its disruption of worldwide supply chains has turned the spotlight on the European Union’s increasing needs for raw materials and reliance on third countries for its supplies.
As an example of this, the EU relies on China for 15 of 38 critical raw materials and on South Africa and Russia for precious metals (platinum, iridium, rhodium, ruthenium, and palladium) which are used for electronics, fuel cells, and catalysts.
However, reliance on third countries is not our only problem. In the precious metals sector, low rates of recycling have plagued our resource efficiency. In Europe, 4 tons of gold and 40 tons of silver, which are used widely in electronics, batteries, and health equipment, go unused every year.
Today, more than ever, we cannot take these issues lightly. We need to create resilient and sustainable supply chains for raw materials necessary to the Green Deal and the digital transition.
The European Raw Material Alliance is a step in the right direction. Its coverage of metal and minerals will contribute to achieving sustainability and resilience for our industrial ecosystem. It will bolster the development of a circular economy for complex products (e.g. electronics, vehicles, and machinery), which will ensure higher resource efficiency of all raw materials. And it will foster an industrial strategy that reinforces Europe’s Open Strategic Autonomy.
Autonomy, or «αυτονομία» in Greek, comes from the words αὐτός (autós, “self”) and νόμος (nómos, “law”). It literally means our “right” to make our own rules.
The European Union’s autonomy will be built upon the resilience, diversification, and circularity of our strategic value chains.
The European Union cannot afford to waste any time in pursuing these objectives, in today’s geopolitical global arena, which is increasingly dominated by protectionism, nationalism and “systemic rivals”.

More to read on the European Raw Materials Alliance and precious metals in the second edition of the newsletter of the European Precious Metals Federation here.