Henrike Hahn, Greens/EFA shadow for the Critical Raw Materials Act, comments on the adoption of the parliaments position in plenary today:

"The European Union needs a stable supply of critical raw materials for a competitive green industry. Raw materials such as lithium and rare earths are essential for key products such as solar panels, wind turbines, electric cars and computer chips. We need raw materials for green technologies and in the space and defence sectors.

The EU Critical Raw Materials Act will help to secure and diversify the supply of critical raw materials for the industry and small and medium-sized enterprises. We need to focus on resource efficiency and circular economy in Europe.

The Greens/EFA have successfully pushed for critical raw materials to be highly recycled and integrated into the circular economy. In addition, efforts will be made to reduce the consumption of less critical raw materials in the future. The promotion of substitution is also being advanced. We have introduced benchmarks to reduce the increased demand for critical raw materials so that the Union consumes fewer of these raw materials than in the reference scenario. In addition, reducing increased consumption of critical raw materials will be included in national programs for circular economy.

We Greens support mining in Europe - but mining critical raw materials in protected areas such as Natura 2000 sites must remain a taboo. It is clear that mining in Europe must always take place under the highest possible environmental and social criteria - Natura 2000 areas are certainly not the appropriate environment for this. Mining must take place with the best possible transparency and public participation, this means also with the involvement of locally affected communities, especially indigenous peoples.

It is particularly gratifying that, following today's plenary vote, the amendment introducing the reference to the principles of 'Free, Prior and Informed Consent' (FPIC), as set out in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2007, was also successfully added. The majority in the European Parliament voted for the right of indigenous peoples to have a say on extractive projects.”

 

I would be happy to answer any further questions.