Energy Intensive Industries provide direct employment to around 2.6 million people and make products which are the foundations of critical and strategic value chains for the EU economy and society.

In May 2022, the European Commission launched REPowerEU, an ambitious plan including measures on energy savings, diversification of energy supplies, and accelerated roll-out of renewable energy. While most of the financial resources required for the implementation of REPowerEU were budgeted under the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), the Commission proposed to increase the RRF financial envelope with €20 billion in grants from the sale of EU Emission Trading System allowances currently held in the Market Stability Reserve (MSR).

Euromines welcomes the European Commission’s recognition that merging decarbonization with industrial competitiveness is a critical issue. We appreciate the proactive engagement of the Commission and the short-term nature of the measures to bridge the current crisis, but we deplore the proposal as it stands. It will not help the energy-intensive industry. The issue of gas prices and linkage to electricity prices is not considered directly risks that the resilience Europe seeks and thus will not deliver on the ambition of the equally announced Critical Raw Materials Act as announced in the 2022 State of the Union by President Ursula von der Leyen. Our industry will not benefit from redistribution measures while still being exposed to the spot price.

Euromines is a proud partner of the Raw Materials and Circular Societies Prize that was just launched by the EIT RawMaterials in collaboration with the WEEE Forum and EYDE Cluster. The aim is to discover ground-breaking solutions for an efficient and sustainable supply of critical and strategic raw materials from secondary sources. These solutions are urgently needed to meet Europe’s demand for a green and circular economy.

Last week, the Commission adopted the 2022 Strategic Foresight Report – “Twinning the green and digital transitions in the new geopolitical context”.

As highlighted in the press release: The current geopolitical instability confirms the need to not only accelerate the twin transitions but also reduce our strategic dependencies. In the short term, this will continue affecting energy and food prices, with a significant social fallout. In the medium- and long-term, for instance, sustainable access to raw materials critical for the twin transitions will remain of paramount importance, adding pressure to move to shorter and less vulnerable supply chains and to friend-shoring wherever possible.