President von der Leyen announced the RESourceEU plan at the Berlin Global Dialogue last October. It aims to secure raw materials for key industrial sectors, from automotives to industrial motors, from defence to aerospace, or AI chips to data centres, and protect EU value chains from supply disruptions. The recent weaponisation of CRMs by dominant market players highlighted the need to accelerate existing efforts to enhance security of supply. The Action Plan builds on the Critical Raw Materials Act to reduce the EU's dependencies more rapidly by proposing concrete policy and financing tools.

The plan aims to fast-track relevant projects and reduce strategic dependencies. The proposal will: 

• Protect European industry from geopolitical and price shocks
• Promote critical raw materials projects by de-risking investments and fast-tracking permitting
• Partner with like-minded countries for strong and diversified supply chains