Patrick Schröder
The European Union is making a significant shift in its approach to resource security, preparing to launch a strategic stockpiling program for critical minerals. Amid growing geopolitical tensions and risks,this new EU stockpiling strategy, which the Financial Times first reported on last weekend, signals Brussels’s intent to reduce vulnerabilities in the supply of key raw materials and components, such as rare earths,
lithium,and permanent magnets, that are essential for clean energy technologies, digital infrastructure, and defense applications. While the EU is not the first to adopt such measures—Japan, South Korea, and the United States have long maintained national stockpiles—this move underscores a broader securitization of critical mineral supply chains. But while stockpiling may offer short-term resilience,
it reflects a largely unilateral response to a broader global challenge. Without stronger multilateral cooperation, such strategies risk exacerbating resource competition and undermining efforts to ensure fair and equitable access to the materials needed for the global energy transition.
Recent tensions between the United States and China over rare-earth exports appear to have eased following a new trade agreement signed last month, but this diplomatic breakthrough offers only temporary relief in an increasingly volatile market. Deeper structural challenges are obvious: the lack of robust international governance and coordination across critical raw material value chains. Earlier episodes underscore the problem.
In April, U.S. President Donald Trump pressured Ukraine into a critical minerals deal that would allow the United States access to Ukraine’s mineral resources as a condition for continued military support. Trump also repeatedly made provocative claims about acquiring Greenland (“We need Greenland very badly”), not ruling out using military force, motivated in part by Greenland’s vast untapped mineral resources.
No comments:
Post a Comment