EU Raw Materials Coalition assessment of the RESourceEU Action Plan
RESourceEU: Security without safeguards Is no security at all. Read our joint position paper, part of the EU Raw Materials Coalition. This coalition is a civil society alliance of over 60 organisations working to ensure Europe’s raw materials policies are socially just, environmentally responsible and grounded in reduced resource consumption.
This joint position paper sets out the EU Raw Materials Coalition’s assessment of the RESourceEU Action Plan and provides forward-looking recommendations on upcoming legislative and policy initiatives, including the European Critical Raw Materials Centre, permitting frameworks, and international partnerships.
Key Recommendations:
- Maintain environmental integrity, human rights and democratic governance as core pillars of EU raw materials policy, rejecting any weakening of the Water Framework Directive and reaffirming the non-deterioration principle in European environmental law.
- Establish clear, binding and transparent governance, transparency and prioritisation principles for critical raw materials in the European Critical Raw Materials Centre, with parliamentary oversight, public reporting and prioritisation aligned with climate, societal and public interest goals.
- Ensure permitting acceleration is limited to administrative efficiency, while fully safeguarding environmental assessments, public participation, access to justice and community consent.
- Embed mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence, traceability and transparency in EU-supported international projects, joint purchasing, stockpiling and supply chain governance.
- Introduce binding mineral demand reduction targets, supported by circularity, efficiency and reduction measures, to reduce dependency, supply-risk shocks, align with planetary boundaries and to strengthen long-term resilience.
- Close the funding gap through scrutinised EU financing instruments and greater coordination across existing funds, and make all public support strictly conditional on full transparency of beneficiaries, binding ESG criteria, compliance with EU environmental law, mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence.
