Activities of Idoia VILLANUEVA RUIZ 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 (10)
Amendment 43 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 1
Recital 1
(1) Access to raw materials is becoming essential for the Union economy and the functioning of the inall international actors in an increasing multipolar world order, where the tenants of multilaternal marketism have been eroded over the past decades. There is a set of non-energy, non-agricultural raw materials that, due to their high economic importance and their exposure to high supply risk, often caused by a high concentration of supply from a few third countries, are considered critical and strategic. Given the key role of many such critical raw materials in realising the green and digital transitions, and in light of their use for defence and space applications, demand will increase exponentially in the coming decades. At the same time, the risk of supply disruptions is increasing against the background of rising geopolitical tensions and resource competition. Furthermore, if not managed properly, increased demand for critical raw materials could lead to negative, the fragmentation of power, the rise of new political actors, the decline of multilateralism and predatory resource competition. Furthermore, if not managed properly, increased demand for critical raw materials will lead to a scramble by both public and private international actors to seize and control the main sources and its consequent supply chains. The critical raw materials should be used in an enviromental sustainable way and should not be in the hands of a few private companies. Additionally, critical raw materials should not in any way, shape or manner have negative human rights, environmental and social impacts. Considering these trends, it is necessary to take measures to ensure access to a secure and sustainable supply of critical raw materials to safeguard the Union's economic resilience and open strategic autonomyin order to advance the green transition in Europe and in the world.
Amendment 49 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 1 a (new)
Recital 1 a (new)
(1a) The European Union should ensure a secure, sustainable and fair share of the supply of critical raw materials with the clear aim to reduce its dependency from third countries and actors. The securing of critical raw materials should have as its core aim to accelarate the green transition and to guarantee the Union's strategic autonomy. In light of the recent geopolitical crises - namely the Russian agression against the Ukraine - it is a geopolitical priority for the EU to reduce both its energy and geopolitcal dependency from third actors.
Amendment 51 #
(2) Given the complexity and the transnational character of critical raw material value chains, uncoordinated national measures to ensure a secure and sustainable supply of critical raw materials have a high potential of distorting competition and fragmenting the internal market. Therefore, to safeguard the functioning of the internal market,he EU should create a common Union framework should be createdto pool resources, in order to to collectively address this central challenge.
Amendment 58 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 3
Recital 3
(3) Firstly, in order to effectively ensure the Union's access to a secure and sustainable supply of critical raw materials, that framework should include measures to decrease the Union's dependence and growing supply risks by strengthening Union capacities along all stages of the strategic raw materials value chain, including extraction, processing and recycling, towards benchmarks defined for each strategic raw material. Secondly, as the Union will continue to rely on imports, the framework should include measures to increase the diversification of external supplies of strategic raw materials, and reduce its dependence namely with those third countries that have no regard for Human Rights. Thirdly, it is necessary to provide measures to reinforce the Union’s ability to identify, monitor and mitigate existing and future supply risks. Fourthly, the framework should contain measures to increase the circularity and sustainability of the critical raw materials consumed in the Union.
Amendment 62 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 5
Recital 5
(5) The list of critical raw materials should contain all strategic raw materials as well as any other raw materials of high importance for the overall Union economEU's aims to reduce both geopolitical and energy dependency and for which there is a high risk of supply disruption. To take account of possible technological and economic changes, the Commission should, in continuation of current practice, periodically perform an assessment based on data for production, trade, applications, recycling, and substitution for a wide range of raw materials to update the lists of critical and strategic raw materials reflecting the evolution in the economic importance and supply risk associated with those raw materials. The list of critical raw materials should include those raw materials which reach or exceed the thresholds for both economic importance and supply risk, without ranking the relevant raw materials in terms of criticality. This assessment should be based on an average of the latest available data over a 5-year-period. The measures set out in this Regulation related to one stop shop for permitting, planning, exploration, monitoring, circularity, and sustainability should apply to all critical raw materials.
Amendment 78 #
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 the respect and upholding for human rights such as the rights of women, children and LGBTQI people, and transparent business practices. Projects should also ensure engagement in good faith as well as comprehensive and meaningful consultations with local communities, includingespecially with indigenous peoples. To provide project promoters with a clear and efficient way of complying with this criterion, compliance with relevant Union legislation - including the Directive on Corporate Sustainable Due Diligence -, international standards, guidelines and principles or participation in a certification scheme recognised under this Regulation should be considered sufficient. _________________ 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 89 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 29
Recital 29
(29) Private investment by companies, financial investors and off takers is essential. Where private investment alone is not sufficient, the effective roll-out of projects along the critical raw material value chain may require public support, for example in the form of guarantees, loans or equity and quasi-equity investments. This public support may constitute State aid. Such aid must have an incentive effect and be necessary, appropriate and proportionate. The existing State aid guidelines, which have recently undergone an in-depth revision in line with twin transition objectives, provide ample possibilities to support investments along the critical raw materials value chain subject to certain conditions but must not be the main stakeholders, as due to the strategic importante oc critical raw materials, it should be maintained in the public domain.
Amendment 92 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 34
Recital 34
(34) Although the reinforcement of the Union’s critical raw materials value chain is necessary to ensure increased security of supply, the supply chains of critical raw materials will remain global and exposed to external factors. Recent or ongoing events ranging from the COVID-19 crisis to the unprovoked and unjustified military aggression against Ukraine underlined the vulnerability of some of the Union’s supply chains to disruptions. In order for the EU to have a fully fledged strategic autonomy and to be a autonomous political actor, it must reduce its geopolitical and energetic dependencies from third countries. To achieve this the EU must have a economic and industrial strategy. In order to ensure that Member States and European industries are able to anticipate supply disruption and prepared to withstand their consequences, measures should be developed to increase monitoring capacity, coordinate strategic stocks and reinforce the preparedness of companies.
Amendment 98 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 49
Recital 49
(49) Critical raw materials sold on the Union market are often certified regarding the sustainability of their production and supply chain. Certification can be obtained in the context of a broad range of public and private certification schemes available with varying scopes and stringency, creating the potential for confusion regarding the nature and veracity of claims made about the relative sustainability of critical raw materials placed on the Union market based on such certification. The Commission should be empowered to adopt implementing acts recognising certification schemes that should be considered comprehensive and trustworthy, providing a common basis for authorities and market participants for assessing the sustainability of critical raw materials. Recognition should be given only to certification schemes that cover a broad range of sustainability aspects, including environmental protection, human rights including labour rights and business transparency, and which contain provisions for due diligence process including due diligence, independent third party verification and monitoring of compliance. To ensure efficient procedures, promoters of projects applying to be recognised as Strategic Projects should be allowed to rely on participation in a recognised scheme to show that their project is implemented sustainably.
Amendment 99 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 50
Recital 50
(50) The prevention and elimination of human rights abuses is a prerequisite of Union's external commercial, economic and geopolitical relations. The production of critical raw materials at different stages of the value chain may causes adverse human rights and environmental impacts, whether on climate, water, fauna or flora. In order to limit suchpotential human rights abuses and environmental damage and incentivise the production of more sustainable critical raw materials, the Commission should be empowered to develop a system for the calculation of the environmental footprint of critical raw materials, including a verification process, to ensure that critical raw materials placed on the Union market publicly display information on such footprint. The system should be based on taking into account scientifically sound assessment methods and relevant international standards, including in the area of life cycle assessment. The requirement to declare the human rights and environmental footprint of a material should only apply where it has been concluded, based on a dedicated assessment, that it would contribute to the Union’s human rights, climate and environmental objectives by facilitating the procurement of critical raw materials with lower environmental footprint and in line with the Union's human rights committments and would not disproportionately affect trade flows. When the relevant calculation methods have been adopted, the Commission should develop performance classes for critical raw materials, thereby allowing potential buyers to easily compare the relative human rights and environmental footprint of available materials and driving the market towards more sustainable materials. Sellers of critical raw materials should ensure that the environmental footprint declaration is available to their customers in a clear and accesible manner. Transparency on the relative footprint of critical raw materials placed on the Union market may also enable other policies at Union and national level, such as incentives or green public procurement criteria, fostering the production of critical raw materials with lower environmental impacts.