European Parliament backs EU critical raw materials centre, €2 billion fund and scrap export clause

The European Parliament on Tuesday backed a plan to turn the EU’s raw-materials policy into something closer to a strategic reserve and a standing agency, voting by 470 to 83, with 108 abstentions, for its position on amendments to the Critical Raw Materials Act. Parliament says it is now ready to open negotiations with member states on the final text.

The vote follows a plenary debate on 19 October. According to the Parliament press release, the amendments are meant to channel targeted support to strategic projects along the whole chain, from mining and processing to refining and recycling, and to speed up extraction, processing, recycling and substitution so that EU supply is less concentrated.

A new EU agency and a fund

The centrepiece of Parliament’s position is a European critical raw materials centre, set up as a self-standing EU agency with its own funding and governance. MEPs want it to combine market intelligence, resilience planning, stockpiling, joint purchasing, stakeholder engagement and financial instruments. They say it should be backed by a €2 billion critical raw materials fund foreseen under the EU’s 2028-2034 long-term budget.

Parliament also wants the Commission to open applications for strategic projects at least twice a year, so that companies know deadlines in advance, and to expand the EU’s existing joint-purchasing mechanism to allow coordinated stockpiling by member states and businesses together.

Export controls and price support

To keep recyclable material inside the Union, MEPs propose a conditional export-control clause that would let the Commission restrict exports of permanent magnet scrap and waste. Responsibility for identifying which large companies in strategic sectors, such as batteries, hydrogen equipment, aircraft, drones, satellites or advanced chips, must meet resilience obligations would move from member states to the Commission. Those obligations include mapping supply chains and acting to reduce vulnerabilities.

For developers of extraction, processing and recycling projects, Parliament calls for price-stabilisation tools such as contracts for difference, which would give them revenue certainty.

The defence dimension

The text explicitly links raw materials to security. Parliament demands that the forthcoming European Defence Industry Programme be used to finance strategic raw-material projects that are vital for EU defence and security capabilities. The same point is relevant well beyond Brussels: Geopolitiki has covered how Washington approaches the problem in US awards $2 billion contract to rebuild strategic tungsten stockpile.

Lead MEP Mohammed Chahim (S&D, Netherlands) said that critical raw materials “have become the currency of geopolitical power” and that Europe needs a centre with the resources and mandate to anticipate supply disruptions, so that its needs “cannot be turned into instruments of geopolitical pressure”. He added that the EU is ready to work with trusted, like-minded countries that share its standards on secure supply chains.

What happens next

Tuesday’s vote only fixes Parliament’s negotiating mandate. The Critical Raw Materials Act itself was adopted by Parliament in December 2023, and the Commission tabled the amendments in December 2025 as part of its RESourceEU action plan, according to the press release. The final shape of the law, including whether member states accept a new agency, a dedicated fund and an export clause, will be decided in talks between Parliament and the Council.