Last week, the Association of Swedish Engineering Industries (Teknikföretagen) sent in its input to the public consultation for the upcoming European Critical Raw Materials Act (ECRMA). Teknikföretagen welcomes the ambition to strengthen the security of supply of critical raw materials for European industry. The proposal is expected to be published by the European Commission in the spring of next year.
- Our member companies produce the innovative technologies that are essential to meet the EU’s highly set environmental goals, which require an increasing amount of critical raw materials. To that end, it is vital to enable reliable sourcing at competitive prices, says Maria Rosendahl, Head of Industrial Policy at Teknikföretagen.
However, Teknikföretagen also cautions against an increased public intervention in European supply chains that may have distortive effects to the market and therefore be counterproductive for the EU to achieve its ambitions. Rather, the organization calls on the European Commission to review existing EU legislation to remove regulatory barriers to de-risk investments. Coupled with an ambitious trade liberalization and facilitation agenda, this could strengthen the security of supply by limiting overreliance on a limited number of suppliers.
- While reliance on imports in itself is not an issue, overreliance concentrated to a limited number of suppliers can leave European industry vulnerable to disturbances to global trade or economic coercion. Broadening the base of suppliers for industry to source from enables industry to manage risk. This requires both internal and external diversification, says Joel Jonsson, Director EU Single Market and Trade Policy at Teknikföretagen.
The key recommendations from Teknikföretagen are:
- Pursue internal and external diversification to strengthen security of supply and reduce overreliance on a limited number of actors
- Focus on removing regulatory barriers to de-risk private investments before considering public support to strategic projects in Europe
- Invest in research and development to promote circularity, recycling and secondary use, and ensure an innovation-friendly legislative framework
- Promote an ambitious trade liberalization and facilitation agenda and limit public intervention in industrial supply chains
Teknikföretagen’s input can be found in full here
Teknikföretagen input to the the European Critical Raw Materials Act
