EU raw materials' initiative aims to protect industry's lifeblood
1 min read
Raw materials are the lifeblood of EU industry. At least 30 million jobs in the EU depend upon access to them. However, industry faces increasing demand for unprocessed minerals and metals, and, in parallel, strong challenges to the supply of certain raw materials, including price volatility and market distortions.
In response, the High Level Steering Group of the European Innovation Partnership (EIP) on Raw Materials has released a Strategic Implementation Plan (SIP) revealing an action strategy to ensure a sustainable supply of raw materials to the European economy – and make Europe a world leader in raw materials exploration, extraction, processing, recycling and substitution by 2020.
The SIP plan details actions which the parties involved – EU countries, companies, researchers and NGOs – can use to foster technological and non-technological innovation in the raw materials value chain, as well as in the international arena. These include a wide range of initiatives, such as new cost-effective exploration concepts and technologies, better recovery and recycling of demolition waste, and finding substitutes for critical raw materials, such as the indium used in touch-screen technologies.
European Commission vice-president Antonio Tajani, responsible for industry and entrepreneurship, and a leader of the High Level Steering Group, commented: "Innovation in raw materials – be it in mining, processing, recycling or substitution – holds the key to future growth and jobs. With today's proposal, we underline that Europe is capable of addressing these important challenges, drawing on our innovative EU research capabilities, as bolstered by Horizon 2020. This will help our industry both create jobs and protect the environment."
The SIP aims to address all actions required to achieve the objectives and targets, including research and development along the value chain, raw materials knowledge, exchange of best practices, revision of selected legislations, licensing steps and standardisation, while also embracing policy dialogues.