Activities of Martina MICHELS related to 2023/0079(COD)
Shadow opinions (1)
OPINION on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a framework for ensuring a secure and sustainable supply of critical raw materials and amending Regulations (EU) 168/2013, (EU) 2018/858, 2018/1724 and (EU) 2019/1020
Amendments (37)
Amendment 20 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 11
Recital 11
(11) In order to ensure the sustainability of increased raw material production, new raw materials projects should be implemented sustainably. To that end, the Strategic Projects receiving support under this Regulation should be assessed taking into account international instruments covering all aspects of sustainability highlighted in the EU principles for sustainable raw materials31 , including ensuring environmental protection, socially responsible practices, including respect for human rights such as the rights of women, and transparent business practices and corporate accountability mechanisms. In addition, these regulations must be assessed in accordance with international human rights law, international environmental law, and due diligence principles, which have been incorporated into the corpus iuris of international human rights law through judgments, decisions, and resolutions, and are embodied in the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. Projects should also ensure engagement in good faith as well as comprehensive and meaningful consultations with local communities, including with indigenous peoples. To provide project promoters with a clear and efficient way of complying with this criterion, compliance with relevant Union legislation, international standards, guidelines and principles or participation in a certification scheme recognised under this Regulation should be considered sufficient by respecting the right to the free, prior and informed consultation process. _________________ 31 European Commission, Directorate- General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, EU principles for sustainable raw materials, Publications Office, 2021, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2873/27875
Amendment 27 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 12
Recital 12
(12) Any promoter of a strategic raw materials project should be able to apply to the Commission for the recognition of their project as a Strategic Project. The application should include several documents and evidence related to the criteria. To better assess the social, environmental and economic viability, the feasibility of the project as well as the level of confidence in the estimates, the project promoter should also provide a classification of the project according to the United Nations Framework Classification for Resources, and to allow for objective validation, they should support this classification with relevant evidence. A timetable for the project should also be attached to an application, in order to estimate when the project would be able to contribute towards the benchmarks for domestic capacity or for diversification. As public acceptanceparticipation, consultation and consent of mining projects is crucial for their effective implementation, the promoter should also provide a plan containing measures to facilitate such public acceptancedebate and participation. Special attention should be paid to local and regional authorities, social partners, civil society and other oversight actors. The promoter should also provide a business plan providing information regarding the project’s financial viability and giving an overview of funding and off- take agreements already secured as well as estimates for potential job creation and for the project’s needs in terms of skilled workforce, including upskilling and reskilling.
Amendment 29 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 18
Recital 18
(18) At the same time, the unpredictability, complexity and, at times, excessive length of national permit- granting processes undermines the investment security needed for the effective development of strategic raw material projects. Therefore, in order to ensure and speed up their effective implementation, Member States should apply streamlined and predictable permitting procedure to Strategic Projects. To that end, Strategic Projects should be given priority status at national level, in consultation with local and regional authorities, to ensure rapid administrative treatment and urgent treatment in all judicial and dispute resolution procedures relating to them. This Regulation should not prevent competent authorities from streamlining permitting for other projects on the critical raw materials value chain that are not Strategic Projects.
Amendment 30 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 19
Recital 19
(19) Given their role in ensuring the Union's security of supply for strategic raw materials, and their contribution to the Union's open strategic autonomy and the green and digital transition, Strategic Projects should be considered by the responsible permitting authority as being in the public interest. Strategic Projects which have an adverse impact on the environment, to the extent it falls under the scope of Directive 2000/60/EC, Council Directive 92/43/EEC and Directive 2009/147/EC39 may be authorised where the responsible permitting authority concludes, based on its case-by-case assessment, that the public interest served by the project overrides those impacts, provided that all relevant conditions set out in those Directives are metin particular for Natura 2000 sites, may not be authorised. Where relevant, the case-by-case assessment should take into account the geological specificity of extraction sites, which constrains decisions on location. _________________ 39 Directive 2009/147/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 November 2009 on the conservation of wild birds (OJ L 20, 26.1.2010, p. 7–25).
Amendment 32 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 20
Recital 20
(20) In order to reduce complexity and increase efficiency and transparency in permitting process, project promoters of critical raw materials projects should be able to interact with a single national authority, which is responsible for facilitating and coordinating the entire permit granting process and in the case of Strategic Projects shall issue a comprehensive decision within the applicable time limit. To that end, Member States should designate a single national competent authority. Where needed in light of a Member State's internal organisation, the tasks of the national competent authority should be able to be delegated to a different authority, subject to the same conditions. This designation shall not affect the ministerial organisation, including its decisional process. Without affecting the speed of the proceedings, the designated competent authority shall request the opinion and involvement of other competent ministries. To ensure the effective implementation of its responsibilities, Member States should provide their national competent authority, or any authority acting on its behalf, with sufficient personnel and resources.
Amendment 36 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 24
Recital 24
(24) The environmental assessments and authorisations required under Union law, including in relation to water, habitats and birds, are an integral part of the permit granting process for a raw material project and an essential safeguard to ensure that negative environmental impacts are prevented or minimised. However, in order to ensure that the permit granting processes for Strategic Projects are predictable and timely, any potential to streamline the required assessments and authorisations while not lowering the level of environmental protection should be realised. In that regard, it should be ensured that the necessary assessment are bundled to prevent unnecessary overlap and it should be ensured that project promoters and responsible authorities explicitly agree on the scope of the bundled assessment before it is implemented to prevent unnecessary follow-up.
Amendment 58 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 45
Recital 45
(45) Operators of extractive waste facilities, both existing and new, should perform a preliminary economic assessment study regarding the recovery of critical raw materials from extractive waste present on the site and from such waste being generated. In line with the waste hierarchy established in Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council46 , priority should be given to preventing the generation of waste containing critical raw materials, by extracting critical raw materials from the extracted volume prior to it becoming waste. In elaborating this study, operators should gather the necessary information, including concentrations and quantities of critical raw materials in the extractive waste, and perform an assessment of multiple options regarding processes, operations or business arrangements that could enable an economically, environmentally and socially viable recovery of critical raw materials. This obligation comes in addition to obligations laid down in Directive 2006/21/EC and the national laws transposing it and is directly applicable. In its implementation, operators and competent authorities should seek to minimise administrative burden and integrate procedures to the extent possible. _________________ 46 Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 November 2008 on waste and repealing certain Directives (OJ L 312, 22.11.2008, p. 3-30).
Amendment 59 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 46
Recital 46
(46) To address the current lack of information on the critical raw materials potential of closed extractive waste facilities, Member States should draw up a database containing all information relevant to promote the recovery, notably the quantities and concentrations of critical raw materials in the extractive waste facility, in compliance with Union competition rules. The information should be made publicly available and in a user- friendly and digital form, enabling access to more detailed, technical information. To facilitate user-friendly access to the information, Member States should for instance provide a point of contact to enable more in-depth exchanges with potential developers of critical raw materials recovery projects. The database should be designed to allow potential project promoters to easily identify facilities with a high potential for economically, environmentally and socially viable recovery. To focus limited resources, Member States should follow a staged approach in the collection of information and perform the more demanding information collection steps only for the most promising facilities. The information collection activities should be aimed at providing accurate and representative information on the extractive waste facilities and gaining the best possible indication of the critical raw materials recovery potential in a way that is least harmful to the environment. .
Amendment 62 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 54
Recital 54
(54) The Union has concluded Strategic Partnerships covering raw materials with third countries in order to implement the 2020 Action Plan on Critical Raw Materials. In order to diversify supply, these efforts should continue with a specific attention to due respect to legislation on forced labour and due diligence, labour rights and ILO recommendations on mining sector, and meaningful engagement with local communities. Those partnerships should seek a more balanced sharing of wealth across the supply and production chain and cover as soon as possible anti- speculation regulation mechanisms to control brokers and speculators. . To develop and ensure a coherent framework for the conclusion of future partnerships, the Member States and the Commission should, as part of their interaction on the Board, discuss and ensure coordination on, inter alia, whether existing partnerships achieve the intended aims, the prioritisation of third countries for new partnerships, the content of such partnerships and their coherence and potential synergies between Member States' bilateral cooperation with relevant third countries. The Union should seek mutually beneficial partnerships with emerging market and developing economies, in coherence with its Global Gateway strategy, which contributeplanned with transparency, public scrutiny, designed for the transition of sustainable economies to address climate change and help to provide also basic needs, while upholding human rights, reducing inequalities and not only de-risking mechanism for private sector competition, while contributing to the diversification of its raw materials supply chain as well as add value in the production in these countries.
Amendment 67 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 55
Recital 55
(55) In order to support the implementation of tasks pertaining to the development of Strategic Projects and their financing, exploration programmes, monitoring capacities or strategic stocks and to advise the Commission appropriately, a European Critical Raw Materials Board should be established. The Board should be composed of Member States and of the Commission, while being able to ensure participation of local and regional authorities, civil society and other parties as observers. To develop the necessary expertise for the implementation of certain tasks, the Board should establish standing sub-groups on financing, exploration, monitoring and strategic stocks as well as sustainability, that should act as a network by gathering the different relevant national authorities and, when necessary, consult industry, academia, civil society and other relevant stakeholders. The Board’s advice and opinions should be non-binding and the absence of such an advice or opinion should not prevent the Commission from performing its tasks under this Regulation.
Amendment 72 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 62
Recital 62
(62) The Commission should carry out an evaluation of this Regulation. Pursuant to paragraph 22 of the Interinstitutional Agreement on Better Law-Making, that evaluation should be based on the five criteria of efficiency, effectiveness, relevance, coherence and EU value added and should provide the basis for impact assessments of possible further measures in particular on Human rights, environment and circularity. The Commission should submit to the European Parliament, to the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee, a report on the implementation of this Regulation and progress towards achieving its objectives, including the capacity and diversification benchmarks. The report should also, based on the implementation of the measures related the transparency of the environmental footprint of critical raw materials, assess the appropriateness of establishing maximum thresholds related to the environmental footprint.
Amendment 80 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 1 – paragraph 1
Article 1 – paragraph 1
1. The general objective of this Regulation is to improve the functioning of the internal market by establishing a framework to ensure the Union's access to a secure and sustainable supply of critical raw materials and their circular, sustainable use, in line with the Green Deal and planetary boundaries.
Amendment 85 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 1 – paragraph 2 – point d a (new)
Article 1 – paragraph 2 – point d a (new)
(da) support just energy transition in the Union, with policies that respect due diligence, human rights and the environment, and that enable Member States to meet their international climate commitments.
Amendment 87 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 1 – paragraph 2 – point d b (new)
Article 1 – paragraph 2 – point d b (new)
(db) provide quality jobs and promote an inclusive and fair job-market throughout the value chain of critical raw materials.
Amendment 91 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 8
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 8
(8) ‘reserves’ means all mineral occurrences that are economically environmentally and socially viable to extract;
Amendment 98 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 3 – paragraph 2 – subparagraph 2
Article 3 – paragraph 2 – subparagraph 2
An updated list of strategic raw materials shall include, from among the critical raw materials assessed, the raw materials that score among the highest in terms of strategic importance, forecasted demand growth and difficulty of increasing production and most importantly shall support the aims outlined in article 1, paragraph 1 and 2, of this regulation. The strategic importance, projected demand growth and difficulty of increasing production shall be determined in accordance with Annex I, Section 2.
Amendment 108 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 5 – paragraph 1 – point c
Article 5 – paragraph 1 – point c
(c) the project would be implemented sustainably, in particular as regards the monitoring, prevention and minimisation of socio-environmental impacts, consistent with the precuationary principle, the use of socially responsible practices including respect of human and labour rights including, but not limited to, the fulfilment of human rights and environmental due diligence obligations, quality jobs potential and meaningful engagement with local communities and relevant social partners, and the use of transparent business practices with adequatestrong compliance policies to prevent and minimise risks of adverse impacts on the proper functioning of public administration, including corruption and bribery;
Amendment 111 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 5 – paragraph 1 – point c a (new)
Article 5 – paragraph 1 – point c a (new)
(ca) the project would effectively ensure consultation, information of local populations within a proper time frame, in line with article 9 new;
Amendment 114 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 5 – paragraph 1 – point e
Article 5 – paragraph 1 – point e
(e) for projects in third countries that are emerging markets or developing economies, the project would be mutually beneficial for the Union and the third country concerned by adding value in that country and respecting international standards and conventions, and the highest environmental and human rights standards in that country and Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence and amending Directive (EU) 2019/1937. This should also include establishing cooperation agreements to enable access to justice and redress for communities in third countries affected by the human rights and environmental violations of companies involved in the strategic projects covered by this regulation.
Amendment 120 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 6 – paragraph 1 – point a a (new)
Article 6 – paragraph 1 – point a a (new)
(aa) relevant evidence that the project is not on a Natura 2000 sites;
Amendment 124 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 6 – paragraph 1 – point d
Article 6 – paragraph 1 – point d
(d) a plan containing measures to facilitate public acceptance including, where appropriate, the establishment ofensure public participation and transparency, in particular with a view to respect internationally recognised right to give or withhold Free, Prior and Informed Consent of Indigenous communities, and to ensure that local populations have been properly consulted, informed and consented within a proper time frame to the project, in line with article 9 new. The plan shall also outline the foreseen recurrent communication channels with the local communities and organisations, including social partners, the implementation of awareness-raising and information campaigns and the establishment of mitigation and compensation mechanisms;
Amendment 127 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 6 – paragraph 1 – point d a (new)
Article 6 – paragraph 1 – point d a (new)
(da) relevant evidence that the project promoter has no track record in human rights nor environmental violations;
Amendment 128 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 6 – paragraph 1 – point f a (new)
Article 6 – paragraph 1 – point f a (new)
(fa) is in line with the Eligibility, Excluded Activities and Excluded sectors list of the European Investment Bank;
Amendment 133 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 6 – paragraph 5 – subparagraph 1
Article 6 – paragraph 5 – subparagraph 1
Where the Member State whose territory is concerned by a proposed project objects to granting the proposed project strategic status, it shall present substantiated reasons for doing so during the discussion referred to in paragraph 4. The legal base for an objection is EU environmental legislation, such as the respect of the Habitat Directive, in particular the protection of Natura 2000 sites. The Board shall discuss the substantiated reasons presented by a Member State for its objection. If, after the discussion, the Member State maintains its objection, the project shall not be considered for the status of Strategic Project.
Amendment 146 #
9. The project promoter shall establish and regularly update a dedicated project website with relevant information about the Strategic Project, including information on the environmental, social and economic impacts and benefits associated with the Strategic Project as well as its comprehensive methodology and plan local and regional authorities consultation, public participation. The website shall be freely accessible to the public and shall be available in a language or languages that can be easily understood by the local population.
Amendment 148 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 8 – paragraph 8 – point a
Article 8 – paragraph 8 – point a
(a) periodically discuss the implementation of this Section and share best-practices for speeding up permitting procedure for critical raw material projects as well as to improve their public acceptanceparticipation and consultation;
Amendment 155 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 9 a (new)
Article 9 a (new)
Amendment 162 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 12 – paragraph 1
Article 12 – paragraph 1
1. Member States shall ensure that national, regional and local authorities responsible for preparing plans, including zoning, spatial plans and land use plans, include in such plans, where appropriate, provisions for the development of critical raw materials projects. Priority shall be given to artificial and built surfaces, industrial sites, brownfield sites, and, where appropriate, greenfield sites not usable for agriculture and forestry. Natura 2000 sites shall be strictly excluded.
Amendment 168 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 14 – paragraph 2 – point b
Article 14 – paragraph 2 – point b
(b) assistance to project promoters to further increase the public acceptanceparticipation and consultation of the project.
Amendment 179 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 18 – paragraph 1
Article 18 – paragraph 1
1. Each Member State shall, in consulation with local and regional authorities and the civil society, draw up a national programme for general exploration targeted at critical raw materials. Each Member State shall draw up the first such programme by [OP please insert: 1 year after the date of entry into force of this Regulation]. The national programmes shall be reviewed and, if necessary, updated, at least every 5 years.
Amendment 217 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 33 – paragraph 1 – point a – point iii
Article 33 – paragraph 1 – point a – point iii
(iii) improving cooperation along the critical raw materials value chain between the Union and partner countries as well as ensuring due diligence and respect for human rights by all actors involved along the value chain; ;
Amendment 220 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 33 – paragraph 1 – point a – point iii a (new)
Article 33 – paragraph 1 – point a – point iii a (new)
(iiia) the Union’s climate and environmental objectives
Amendment 223 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 33 – paragraph 1 – point c – point i a (new)
Article 33 – paragraph 1 – point c – point i a (new)
Amendment 227 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 33 – paragraph 1 – point c – point iii
Article 33 – paragraph 1 – point c – point iii
(iii) whether there are existing cooperation agreements between a third country and the Union and, for emerging markets and developing economies, the potential for the deployment of Global Gateway investment projects. planned with transparency, public scrutiny, designed for the transition of sustainable economies to address climate change and help to provide also basic needs, while upholding human rights, reducing inequalities and not only de-risking mechanism for private sector competition.
Amendment 237 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 35 – paragraph 1
Article 35 – paragraph 1
1. The Board shall be composed of Member States and the Commission. It shall be chaired by the Commission. Regional and Local authorities shall be consulted.
Amendment 242 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 35 – paragraph 6 – subparagraph 2 – point d a (new)
Article 35 – paragraph 6 – subparagraph 2 – point d a (new)
Amendment 272 #
Proposal for a regulation
Annex III – point 4 – point i a (new)
Annex III – point 4 – point i a (new)
(ia) EIB Eligibility, Excluded Activities and Excluded sectors list; UN Declaration on the rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP); ILO Convention n°169; Paris Agreement.