The 2020 EU Critical Raw Materials List

Country / jurisdiction: European Union · Year: 2020 · Status: In force · Level: International · Type: Voluntary

The EU’s list of Critical Raw Materials (CRMs) is a list of raw materials, mostly minerals, that are considered strategic to the EU’s’ economy and that have high supply risk.

The European Commission, which maintains the list, stresses that these minerals are at the heart of a broad range of goods and applications used in everyday life and modern technologies. Their importance is growing even faster as a result of the shift to low-carbon energy systems. As such, reliable and unhindered supply is of critical importance to EU countries.

This document lists raw materials that are both crucial to maintaining a healthy economic system, and whose supply may be at risk, because of - but not limited to - geopolitical, geographical, and geological factors.

The list aims at helping governments and industries take better-informed decisions, and improve their own strategies to cope with the risks associated with those minerals. This list is updated every three years (2011, 2014, 2017, 2020) to keep up with the rapid evolutions of the industry. The methodology used to establish the list was published in July 2017.

As of 2020, the established list contains 30 minerals or groups of minerals:

Antimony

Baryte

Beryllium

Bismuth

Borate

Cobalt

Coking Coal

Fluorspar

Gallium

Germanium

Hafnium

Heavy Rare Earth Elements

Light Rare Earth Elements

Indium

Magnesium

Natural Graphite

Natural Rubber

Niobium

Platinum Group Metals

Phosphate Rock

Phosphorus

Scandium

Silicon metal

Tantalum

Tungsten

Vanadium

Bauxite

Lithium

Titanium

Strontium

Note that the bolded items were newly added in 2020.

Official source: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52020DC0474&from=EN