Today’s release of 13 Strategic Projects outside of the EU under the Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA) raises growing concerns from civil society over the European Union’s approach to Strategic Partnerships and mining investments outside its borders. The EU Raw Materials Coalition (EURMC) warns that these projects lack proper safeguards, transparency, and local involvement—putting human rights, Indigenous rights, and environmental protection at serious risk. 

While Green Deal goals were central to the commission’s approach to CRMs, militarisation takes centre stage, risking human rights and the environment, all while the omnibus packages wreak havoc on the EU’s ambitions set out in the Corporate Sustainable Due Diligence Directive and Battery Regulation.

Of the second batch, several selected projects are based in countries outside of the EU with weak industrial governance systems, raising red flags about how Strategic Partnerships are being implemented on the ground. The EU must live up to its commitments to human rights, international law, and democratic engagement by ensuring these projects do not replicate extractivist harms.

The EU’s Critical Raw Materials Act was meant to help secure raw material supply chains. But in doing so, the EU must avoid exporting social and environmental harm. Strategic Projects carried out abroad cannot proceed without Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) of Indigenous Peoples, whose territories are often disproportionately affected.

“With 54% of energy transition minerals located on or near Indigenous lands, the EU must ensure that Indigenous Peoples’ rights to self-determination and FPIC are fully respected—both within and beyond Europe’s borders.”
— Yblin Román Escobar, Policy Advisor, SIRGE Coalition

Civil society is also alarmed by the Commission’s ongoing failure to provide information about how projects were selected, the criteria used, and how they will be monitored and evaluated—raising questions about the EU’s compliance with the Aarhus Convention and its own due diligence promises.

“The Strategic Projects list includes foreign mining ventures in countries with poor environmental oversight. Without clear criteria, safeguards, and public disclosure, these projects risk repeating colonial patterns of resource extraction.”
— Robin Roels, Coordinator, EU Raw Materials Coalition

The inclusion of Serbia’s Jadar lithium project, led by Rio Tinto, as a Strategic Project raises serious concerns. The project has been widely opposed by local communities, environmental defenders, and Serbian civil society, who successfully mobilised against it in 2021 due to its environmental risks, lack of transparency, and violations of democratic procedures. Its reappearance on the EU’s Strategic Projects list, despite unresolved legal, environmental, and social issues, suggests a troubling disregard for public opposition and due process. This move risks reigniting tensions on the ground and contradicts the EU’s own values of participatory governance and respect for local democracy and participation in decision-making.

     “The EU just added fuel to fire. It had back an authoritarian regime and a corporation against whom 63% of the population now stand to fight at a time when the entire country is under blockade and violence. The EU will thus lose support in Serbia and the region and probably cause further social unrest. The fact that the Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić announced the Board’s decision more than a week before it was public, also raises questions of legitimacy behind the decision.”

  — Aleksandar Matković, Research Associate, Institute of Economic Sciences

The recent amicable visit of President Vučić visit to Moscow also raises questions. The EU must urgently rethink its approach. Civil society organisations call for full transparency, inclusive governance, and binding safeguards that place community rights, justice, and material sufficiency at the centre of the EU’s external raw materials strategy.

ENDS.

For further information, please contact:

Robin Roels 
EU Raw Materials Coalition Coordinator
robin.roels@eeb.org

Andreas Budiman
Communications Officer
andreas.budiman@eeb.org