Context of the session
The Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA), which was published in 2024 by the European Commission, aims to address some of the challenges and opportunities that the EU faces in advancing the energy transition and achieving climate-neutrality by 2050. Among other objectives, it establishes a target of 10% of critical raw materials to be extracted within Europe by 2030, and it puts forward measures to expedite the permitting process for extraction projects. It also strives to enhance the monitoring and risk management of supply disruptions, and to uphold high social and environmental standards for production of critical raw materials.
The implementation of the CRMA faces multifaceted challenges that fundamentally threaten its capacity to transform Europe’s mineral value chains and secure the EU’s strategic autonomy. Regulatory framework limitations present the most immediate obstacle, as CRMA targets appear unattainable without enforceable compliance mechanisms and a coherent industrial strategy ensuring competitively priced energy and diverse skills development. Administrative capacity constraints compound these difficulties, with understaffed country and regional administrations and skills shortages creating permitting bottlenecks that fuel stakeholder distrust, ultimately reducing opportunities for constructive engagement around mineral projects.
Perhaps most critically, public acceptance of mining projects has emerged as the decisive factor, with social licence to operate being undermined by the disconnect between EU-level priorities and local community interests—a problem potentially exacerbated by the accelerated permitting processes for Strategic Projects. Investment barriers further constrain progress, as limited EU investor interest is hampered by opaque, concentrated markets and the absence of a premium market for responsibly produced minerals, requiring fundamental changes to competition rules and public sector intervention strategies.
Underlying all these challenges are policy coherence issues, particularly the significant tensions between environmental protection frameworks and mineral resource security objectives, which create conflicting regulatory priorities that undermine public confidence. Overcoming these interconnected difficulties requires dramatically increased coordination among Member States and with the private sector, alongside enhanced capacity to manage market disruptions and achieve genuine policy coherence across competing regulatory frameworks.
About CIRAN
CIRAN is pioneering, testing, and validating processes to achieve systemic policy-making that successfully balances environmental protection with society’s critical need for accessing raw materials. This groundbreaking work advances through three pillars:
- Streamlined permitting procedures specifically designed for environmentally protected areas;
- Cutting-edge policies and social contract frameworks that harmonise the protection of environmentally sensitive areas with domestic CRM sourcing in the EU;
- The establishment of a community of practice that will champion best practice and remain actively engaged beyond the project funding period.
Encouragingly, preliminary assessments of active mines located in environmentally protected areas across Europe demonstrate that mining and environmental protection can be aligned when properly managed. CIRAN is using these benchmarks to advance innovative social contract models that clearly define the rights, obligations, and responsibilities of governments (national and regional), communities, and mine operators, alongside novel business models, to create sustainable frameworks for responsible extraction.
By integrating economic viability with environmental stewardship and social acceptance, CIRAN’s approach paves the way for a new paradigm in European mining—one that transforms potential conflicts into collaborative partnerships and positions the EU as a global leader in responsible critical raw materials sourcing.
Involved People
This partner-led session organized by CIRAN, will bring key stakeholders from across policy, industry, and civil society to explore how responsible raw material extraction can be reconciled with environmental protection. Panelists will share diverse perspectives on how to navigate tensions between EU-level ambitions and local realities, accelerate permitting without undermining public trust, and develop inclusive governance models that reflect community interests.
Moderator:
Vitor Correia, Secretary General, International Raw Materials Observatory
Panelists:
Adrien Licha, Coordinator of the Secretariat Office, European Association for Local Democracy
Fabiana Di Lorenzo, Senior Director, Responsible Business Alliance
Florian Anderhuber, Deputy Director General, Director Energy, Climate & Sustainability, Euromines
Johanna Sydow, Head of International Environmental Policy Division, Heinrich-Böll Foundation
Paulo Cunha, Member of the European Parliament
Guest Speaker:
Ludivine Wouters, Managing Partner, Latitude Five
