The EESC:
- calls upon the European Commission to ensure a comprehensive approach with coordinated EU policies to provide regulatory certainty for investments in exploration, extraction, processing, refining and recycling of raw materials (RM), their by-products and essential minerals;
- calls for the coordination of RM policy with EU social policies and for the support of EU-wide capacity building in terms of skills for extractive industries, targeting the re-skilling and up-skilling of the existing workforce, as well as the development of governance capacity in EU Member States' public administrations;
- recommends including other materials crucial for green tech/cleantech sectors in the critical and strategic raw materials lists;
- calls upon the current and new European Commission to ensure access to competitive energy prices and targeted financing for EU extractive industries and recycling, while also ensuring that permitting and licensing procedures for new RM projects are simplified and shortened;
- recommends prioritizing critical and strategic raw materials in recycling and waste legislation and supporting the secondary raw materials markets, especially for materials crucial for the green transition;
- recommends supporting CRM exploration and extraction projects on EU soil with public funding, by means of coordination with State aid rules;
- suggests exploring avenues for specific partnerships and cooperation agreements with candidate countries as well, and
- recommends striking the right (environmental) balance in assessing the consistency with other EU policies.