Von der Leyen works on a European plan to ensure access to critical raw materials

The President of the European Commission (EC), Ursula von der Leyen, announced on Saturday that the body she heads is working on a plan to facilitate European industries’ access to critical raw materials, in a context marked by restrictions on Chinese rare earths and US tariffs.

“I can announce today that we are working on a new ‘RESourceEU’ plan along the lines of the ‘REPowerEU’ initiative, which helped us overcome the crisis together after (Vladimir) Putin cut fossil fuels. The aim is to ensure access to alternative sources of critical raw materials,” von der Leyen said at the Berlin Global Dialogue hosted by the German capital. Von der Leyen thus alluded to the crisis that the geopolitical context opened up by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine meant for European countries from an energy point of view, a situation that led Moscow to turn off the tap on hydrocarbons to Europe.

“We have learned the lesson the hard way with energy and we will not repeat it with critical raw materials,” said the EC president in what was the most important speech this Saturday at the Berlin Global Dialogue, an international event in which prominent political and business figures were given to address geopolitical and geoeconomic issues.

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