Brussels, 5 April 2024
Today, the EU, the US, and other Minerals Security Partnership (MSP) partners, joined by Kazakhstan, Namibia, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan, announced the launch of the Minerals Security Partnership Forum (or “MSP Forum”). The forum will serve as a new platform for cooperation in the area of critical raw materials (CRMs) vital for the global green and digital transitions.
The Critical Raw Materials Club announced by the European Commission now becomes a full part of the MSP Forum. This will create a greater, more ambitious joint initiative linked to the Minerals Security Partnership, where the European Commission represents the EU. The Forum will bring together resource-rich countries and countries with high demand for these resources.
The work of the MSP Forum will be developed around two strands:
- a project group focused on supporting and accelerating the implementation of sustainable critical minerals projects;
- a policy dialogue that will identify policies for boosting sustainable production and local capacities, facilitate regulatory cooperation to foster fair competition, transparency and predictability, and promote high environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards in CRM supply chains.
Membership of the MSP Forum will be open to partners who are ready to commit to the key MSP principles, including diversification of global supply chains and high environmental standards, good governance and fair working conditions. In a sign of strong transatlantic cooperation, the EU and the United States will co-lead the new forum.
Next steps
The EU and US, together with current MSP partners, are reaching out to prospective members in North and South America, Africa, Asia and Europe, to expand the participation in the Forum and start working within the project and policy dialogue groups.
Background
The MSP Forum builds on the EU’s Critical Raw Materials Package adopted in March 2023, which emphasised the need for more diverse and more sustainable CRM supply chains through new, mutually supportive international partnerships, such as the CRM Club. The MSP currently has 15 partners (Australia, Canada, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Norway, the Republic of Korea, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the US and the EU).
CRMs are indispensable for a wide set of technologies needed for EU strategic sectors such as the net-zero industry, digital, space and defence. While the demand for such critical raw materials has never been higher, it is expected to continue to grow driven by the green and digital transitions. For instance, EU demand for lithium used in electric-vehicles batteries and energy storage is expected to increase twelve-fold by 2030. Meanwhile, the supply of CRMs is confronted with rising geopolitical, environmental, and social risks and challenges.
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Quote(s)
The MSP Forum is a cornerstone of the EU’s strategy to secure a more sustainable supply of critical raw materials. It will be key to reducing our vulnerabilities and to achieve the green and digital transition, both in Europe and beyond. With this global initiative, we want to make sure that international cooperation is up to the task of increasing investment, diversifying supply chains and bringing sustainable benefits to all parties. Together, we can achieve the transition to a more sustainable future.
Questions and Answers on the Minerals Security Partnership Forum
What is the MSP Forum?
The Minerals Security Partnership (MSP) Forum will be a multilateral cooperation platform, within the framework of the MSP, bringing together raw materials producing and consuming countries at various stages of development. It focusses on advancing and accelerating individual projects and promoting policies that contribute to resilient value chains and to bringing local value-addition.
Why did the Commission decide to team up with the Mineral Security Partnership?
A key pillar of our approach to bolstering our Critical Raw Materials (CRMs) supply chains has been working with international partners, which ensures greater efficiency and complementarity with current plurilateral initiatives. Teaming up with the MSP is another step towards these objectives, and we have engaged intensively with our US partners on how to maximise the contribution of a CRM Club into the current MSP and improve its structure.
When will the MSP Forum be fully operational?
We are now engaging in outreach to ensure broad participation of resource-rich countries in the Forum. In parallel, we will establish a working level mechanism to implement the objectives of the Forum: to advance projects with (and in) Forum members and to prepare the policy actions proposed for the first year:
- a workshop on public-private investment in CRMs focusing on developing a positive, trade friendly local-value addition agenda in resource-rich countries.
- an inter-governmental seminar and subsequent government-business forum on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) compliant, sustainable production and management of CRMs – including through addressing relevant pricing challenges.
We aim at starting substantive working level discussions in the Forum as early as May 2024.
At the same time, MSP activities already on-going focused on advancing and accelerating individual projects will be formalised and expanded. This could include project information sharing for MSP Partners and the Private Sector, presenting CRM opportunities to potential investors, provision of technical assistance in regulatory areas as well as geological survey and mapping assistance.
Specifically, what will be discussed within the MSP Forum Policy Dialogue Group?
Topics for policy dialogue in the MSP Forum could include:
1) Policies to boost sustainable production and local capacities, such as:
- Policies to promote sustainable public-private investment and local-value addition in producing countries using best available technologies.
- Policies to support reliable supply chains in critical minerals, balancing interests of off-takers (i.e. critical minerals consumers) and of producing countries.
- Cooperation on policies to promote and coordinate research, development, and pilot project demonstration.
2) Policies to encourage regulatory cooperation to foster fair competition, transparency, predictability, favourable investment climate and local value addition in critical minerals projects.
3) Policies on sustainability, including:
- Policies to foster application of high environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards and promote and facilitate effective recycling.
- Policies to address pricing challenges related to high ESG standards.
Which minerals will be the focus of the MSP Forum?
The MSP Forum focuses on the minerals and metals supply chains most relevant for clean energy technologies. These include – but are not limited to – lithium, cobalt, nickel, manganese, graphite, rare earth elements, and copper, as well as germanium and gallium.
Other critical raw materials may come into focus as issues arise, or as activities and projects are agreed.
How does the MSP Forum complement the Global Gateway?
The Global Gateway is an instrument to boost sustainable investments in five priority sectors – climate and energy, digital, transport, health, education, and research – in the framework of EU partnerships with third countries.
The Global Gateway is the EU vehicle to assist partner countries with concrete projects in infrastructure and connectivity, including by boosting and leveraging concrete private sector investments along the CRM value chain, which is also a key objective of the MSP Forum. In this context the initiatives complement and reinforce each other.
How would the MSP Forum relate to international cooperation within other organisations such as the OECD, WTO, and G7?
The MSP Forum, through its focus on both project work and policy dialogue, and its constituency of raw materials producing and consuming countries at various stages of development, is a unique contribution to international cooperation towards a secure, sustainable supply of critical raw materials for the green and digital transition. It will complement and interact with relevant international institutions, including the International Energy Agency, the International Renewable Energy Agency, the OECD, the G20, the G7, the Conference on Critical Materials and Minerals, and the United Nations Environment Assembly.
Which countries will be invited to join the MSP Forum?
The MSP Forum is open to countries that are ready to commit to diversifying global critical mineral supply chains and to the MSP’sPrinciples on Responsible Critical Mineral Supply Chains. Initially, the EU and US co-chairs of the Forum, with support from other MSP partners, are reaching out to partners whose participation in the Forum was identified as priority by the MSP members.
Is this MSP Forum an outcome of the EU-US TTC?
Not directly. The MSP Forum is formally separate from the TTC, as the Forum is a multilateral undertaking including a wide range of countries, whereas the TTC is a bilateral project between the EU and US.
However, the organisation and launch of the MSP Forum has been made much easier by the valuable contacts established between the EU and US administrations over the course of the TTC.
The Forum will also help the EU and US achieve the CRM objectives (e.g. making CRM supply chains more diverse and sustainable) that the TTC has been working towards.
Namibia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan were also present at the MSP Forum launch at TTC6 – does that mean that they are MSP members too?
No, these countries were present because of their interest to join the MSP Forum and the very good cooperation achieved with the EU and the US as regards critical raw materials. Namibia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan have concluded strategic partnerships on critical raw materials with the EU. Last but not least, Uzbekistan is officially signing today a MoU sustainable on critical raw materials value chains with the EU.
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Source – EU Commission