The Commission has proposed several new initiatives to strengthen the EU’s economic security and boost competitiveness.
A strategic approach to strengthen Europe’s economic security
The new approach outlines concrete steps to make the EU stronger and more resilient in the face of growing external economic threats, while remaining open and committed to international trade and investment. To enhance its economic security, the EU plans to leverage existing instruments, regardless of their original purpose, and to deploy its toolbox more proactively when needed.
Key actions include
- a more proactive and targeted approach focusing on six priority high-risk areas
- coordinated and strategic use of tools to improve EU action
- improved risk assessment and information gathering and sharing to ensure timely and effective intervention
- completing the EU’s economic security toolbox with new tools to address the current gaps, such as REsourceEU
- international cooperation with trusted partners, promoting common economic security standards and addressing key challenges together
RESourceEU action plan to secure raw materials, reduce dependencies, and boost competitiveness
Building on the Critical Raw Materials Act, the RESourceEU action plan aims to accelerate and amplify the efforts to secure the EU’s supply of critical raw materials for key industrial sectors and protect EU value chains from supply disruptions. This includes sectors such as automotives, industrial motors, defence, aerospace, AI chips, and data centres.
The action plan focuses on
- protecting European industry from geopolitical and price shocks by setting up a European Critical Raw Materials Centre to diversify and strengthen the supply chains, using the Raw Materials Platform to aggregate demand, jointly purchase strategic raw materials and secure offtake agreements, and developing a coordinated EU approach to stockpiling critical raw materials
- promoting critical raw materials projects by de-risking investments and fast-tracking permitting, which can reduce dependencies by up to 50% by 2029. Over the next 12 months, €3 billion in EU funds will support projects that can provide alternative supplies in the short term
- partnering with like-minded countries to strengthen and diversify supply chains, building on the existing 15 strategic partnerships with resource-rich countries, while also working on new investment frameworks
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