in-cyprus 3 February 2026
EU ministers will meet in Cyprus this week to discuss the bloc’s declining competitiveness as auditors delivered a damning assessment of efforts to secure critical minerals needed for tech, defence and the energy transition.
The European Court of Auditors warned on Monday that the EU’s efforts to diversify its imports of metals and minerals have “yet to produce tangible results.”
The timing of the Cyprus meeting underscores the urgency of the crisis, with the bloc facing mounting pressure from American and Chinese rivals whilst its own strategic minerals plan falters.
The EU’s Critical Raw Materials Act in 2024 set out a plan to boost local production of 34 strategic materials to reduce over-reliance on imports from just a few countries – mainly China, Turkey and Chile.
The list includes lithium, antimony, tungsten, copper and rare earth elements needed to manufacture semiconductors, wind turbines and artillery shells.
Recycling rates as low as 1%
The act set non-binding targets for 2030, by which time the EU should extract 10% of the minerals it requires, boost recycling capacity for those materials to 15% and process 40% of its annual needs of each strategic raw material.
“The outlook is not promising: as things stand, seven out of 26 materials needed for the energy transition have recycling rates between 1% and 5%, whilst 10 are not recycled at all,” the ECA said in a report, blaming a lack of material-specific incentives.
“Processing capacities – for which the EU aims to reach 40% of its consumption by 2030 – are shutting down, partly due to high energy costs which can seriously hamper competitiveness.”
The EU’s strategic partnerships for raw materials with third countries have also yet to show any gains.
“The EU has signed 14 strategic partnerships on raw materials over the last five years, seven of them in countries with low governance scores. Imports from these partner countries fell between 2020 and 2024 for around half of the raw materials examined,” the ECA said.
New plan proposed
The Commission proposed a new plan in December called RESourceEU to accelerate the CRMA, but many details have yet to be implemented or announced. The plan includes export restrictions on rare earth waste – to address the Chinese near-monopoly – and a plan to invest €3 billion ($3.55 billion) to fast-track some strategic material projects.
Ministers gathering in Cyprus will discuss the bloc’s declining competitiveness versus American and Chinese rivals as these challenges mount.
Underlining the importance of such materials, US President Donald Trump is set to launch a strategic critical minerals stockpile with $12 billion in seed money from the US Export-Import Bank, a Trump administration official familiar with the plan said.
(With information from Reuters)
