CRMA - Strategic Projects

Behind a paywall and it's focused on Spain: https://www.elmundo.es/economia/2025/03/24/67e19b2afdddff662b8b45a2.html

Some interesting info:

• There are 47 strategic projects
• They will have access to funding of €27 billion, which on average is €570 million per project!! (I wasn't expecting any kind of funding announcement as part of this, that's a fantastic surprise!)
• While it does mention the projects for Spain, it doesn't mention other countries. However, the projects are only located in 13 EU states, Sweden is one of them. Interestingly the projects cover 11 graphite sites.

I was able to encourage the paywall to disappear, translated article below

Stéphane Séjourné (Versailles, 1985) presents this Tuesday in Brusselsthe first list of 47 strategic projects for critical raw materials, a basicmeasure with which the European Commission aims to reduce its dependence onforeign resources in this

" Spain is very important because it has projects for theextraction, processing, and recycling of seven critical raw materials ,"the French vice president notes. The list made public today does indeed showthat Spain accounts for 15% of all EU resources and contains elements such aslithium, nickel, cobalt, copper, and tungsten—essential products for electricmobility and defense.

The projects selected by the EU in Spain, which in all cases are alreadyunderway, are distributed between Extremadura, Andalusia, Galicia, andCastilla-La Mancha, and will be part of the 47 initiatives that will haveaccess to funding of up to €27 billion. And, very importantly, they willreceive significant bureaucratic and administrative facilities. "We wantto reduce the time it takes to launch the processes : theconcession processes will not exceed 27 months for extraction projects and 15months for other activities. We are trying to move as quickly as possible.Right now, there are deadlines that even reach 10 years, depending on regional,national, and European legislation," explains Séjourné.

This is key because it involves a significant elimination of barriers,providing certainty to companies and potential investors, and, to a certainextent, bypassing cumbersome local and national regulatory processes. Althoughthe French vice president speaks more of collaboration, not only inbureaucratic terms but also in social terms. It will be necessary, hemaintains, to convince the population where these projects are located, whichoften generate rejection due to their impact on the region, that they areessential for Europe. "In terms of social acceptance , wewill do everything possible to help project leaders at the local and nationallevels explain the fundamentals of the projects and European interests. What Iam doing right now is also part of this, because sometimes projects arelaunched by the European Commission without the necessary communication. Andhere we want to ensure the opposite," continues the French vice president.

"We want abundant raw materials that aren't expensive forthe automotive or battery industries. Raw materials that contribute to thecompetitiveness of our industry in these sectors. We want to avoid ending up ina difficult situation in the future; these raw materials can't be theRussian gas of tomorrow . In short, we're going to do everythingpossible to prevent these dependencies from returning, given the geopoliticalsituation is so uncertain," continues Séjourné, who repeatedly refers tothe EU's dependency.

Some data offered by Séjourné's vice-presidency demonstrates thissituation. Spain has the aforementioned tungsten mine, an element also producedin Portugal and Austria, but European dependence on this material reaches 80%.And magnesium, which is also used in defense and will be key to the rearmamentprocess, has a dependence approaching 100% , and one namestands out: China . The Asian country dominates rare earthsand critical raw materials, and this is of great concern in Brussels. "Thesignificant increase in raw materials arriving from China and the fact thatthere are restrictions by the United States due to trade tensions between thosetwo countries only increase Europe's dependence on China. And that must nothappen; we must move even faster," insists the French vice-president.

"We need to explain things. The Commissionneeds to explain the approach we're taking, focusing on reducing dependenciesand ensuring supply. That's why we need to be very clear about our rawmaterials strategy and reach the general public. A quick example on lithium:today we're 81% dependent on lithium exports, and 100% dependent on processing.According to our 2030 targets, we truly want to be self-sufficient in thisregard. We have mines in Portugal, Spain, Germany, Finland, and the CzechRepublic. Regarding processing, where we're currently 100% dependent on China,we want to bring it back to Europe. We already have it in France and Portugal,and recycling is done in Italy, Finland, and Sweden.

As you can see, our lithium strategy is to achieveself-sufficiency in this material by 2030, and all the projects we've selectedare moving in that direction: production, processing, and recycling, all withinEurope," Séjourné emphasizes. Overall, the 47 strategic projects arelocated in 13 European Union states: Belgium, France, Italy, Germany, Estonia,the Czech Republic, Greece, Sweden, Finland, Portugal, Poland, Romania, and, ofcourse, Spain. They cover 14 of the 17 strategic raw materials included in theCritical Raw Materials Regulation (CRMA), and in total, there are 22 lithiumsites, 12 nickel sites, seven manganese sites, and 11 graphite sites. There isalso only one magnesium site, located in Romania, and the three targetedtungsten sites. The selection of all of them is due to their guarantee of rawmaterial supply in compliance with environmental, social, and governancecriteria, according to the Vice President's team.