EC: Reducing the EU's dependency on raw materials: EIP launched

On the 12th February 2013 the European Innovation Partnership (EIP) on raw materials was officially launched by European Commission Vice-President Antonio Tajani. On this occasion a press conference took place in Brussels and the memorandum was issued (Please see the attached file).

The press conference was followed by the 1st High Level Steering Group Meeting. Dr. Corina Hebestreit participated in the meeting. The specific report from Euromines will follow.

Euromines Policy Committee is following the whole issue and is preparing the inputs and positions.

European Commission Vice-President Antonio Tajani, responsible for Industry and Entrepreneurship, launched yesterday, together with his colleagues Maire Geoghegan Quinn European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science, and Janez Potočnik European Commissioner for the Environment, the European Innovation Partnership (EIP) on raw materials, bringing together Member States and other stakeholders to help make Europe a world leader in raw materials exploration, extraction, processing, recycling and substitution by 2020. To this end, the Commission proposes concrete targets to be achieved by 2020 to reduce Europe's dependency on imported raw materials, to replace rare materials with substitutes and to set up innovative pilot actions, e.g. pilot plants for exploration, mining, processing, collecting and recycling. Raw materials are the lifeblood of EU industry: at least 30 million jobs in the EU depend upon access to them. But much of Europe’s industry is heavily dependent on international markets to secure the raw materials it requires. To turn this trend and to reduce cost for raw materials, today's initiative is part of the European Commission industry strategy launched in autumn 2012 to make Europe an attractive place for industry investment.

Full version of the European Commission MEMO

More information on the EIP on Raw Materials