BRUSSELS — The EU wants to purchase and stockpile critical raw materials to ensure the supply of minerals and metals critical for industries ranging from defense to carmakers.
The proposal is part of a new annual work plan presented Tuesday and designed to meet “Europe’s independence moment.”
The move — setting up a Critical Raw Materials Center to “monitor, jointly purchase and stockpile these minerals, which are so essential to our industrial sovereignty” — comes within a 2026 plan peppered with actions to prop up the bloc’s independence.
“Our regional and global order is being redrawn. And Europe must fight for its place in a world where some major powers are either ambivalent or hostile to us,” Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the European Parliament on Tuesday.
