EU wants to create rare earth reserves - FT
Kyiv • UNN
The European Union plans to create emergency reserves of critical minerals, including rare earth metals, and cable repair kits. This decision was made amid growing concerns about the EU's vulnerability to attacks and hybrid threats.
Brussels has announced it will create emergency stockpiles of critical minerals, including rare earth metals, and cable repair kits, amid growing concerns about the EU's vulnerability to attacks, UNN reports with reference to the Financial Times.
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"The EU faces an increasingly complex and deteriorating risk landscape, marked by growing geopolitical tensions, including conflicts, intensifying effects of climate change, environmental degradation, hybrid and cyber threats," the European Commission said in a draft document outlining the stockpiling strategy.
EU member states should coordinate reserve supplies of food, medicine, and even nuclear fuel, the EU executive body said.
It will also accelerate work on EU-level stockpiles of items such as cable repair modules "to ensure rapid recovery from disruptions to energy or optical cables," and goods such as rare earth metals and permanent magnets, which are crucial for energy and defense systems.
Several incidents of potential sabotage to underwater communication cables and gas pipelines in recent years have raised concerns about the vulnerability of critical infrastructure.
The strategy is part of a broader EU effort to enhance the security and stability of the 27-nation bloc. Last month, General Carsten Breuer, Chief of Staff of the German Armed Forces, warned that Russia could attack an EU member state within the next four years.
The document states that the higher risk environment was driven by "increased activity by hacktivists, cybercriminals, and state-sponsored groups."
The EU is also more susceptible than many other regions to the effects of climate change, as warming is occurring twice as fast as the global average. Wildfires on Crete forced 5,000 people to evacuate the island this week.
In a report commissioned by the EU in October, former Finnish President Sauli Niinistö stated that security should be considered a "public good" and called for readiness for action.
Regarding stockpiling, he said that Brussels should "define targets to ensure a minimum level of readiness in various crisis situations, including in the event of armed aggression or a large-scale disruption of global supply chains."
In March, the EU also recommended that households stockpile essential items to survive at least 72 hours of a crisis.
The bloc already has a fleet of firefighting planes and helicopters, a medical evacuation aircraft, as well as items such as field hospitals and critical medical supplies in 22 EU countries as part of its emergency disaster response efforts.
But the European Commission said it would create a "stockpiling network" to improve coordination among EU countries. There was "limited common understanding of what essential goods are needed for crisis preparedness in a rapidly changing risk landscape," the document said.
It will also begin compiling regularly updated lists of essential goods, tailored to each region and type of crisis. EU member states should better incentivize the private sector to help with stockpiling, for example, through tax breaks, the document said.
The bloc must also work with allies on "joint warehousing" and better coordinate resource management and dual-use infrastructure with NATO.
The need for investment in critical stockpiles will also be addressed in proposals for a new multiannual budget, which are to be presented later this month.
The draft document is expected to be published next week and may change before its submission.