Joint Statement: A European Resilience Mechanism for Strategic Industrial Materials
European industry needs a stronger and faster response to supply risks affecting strategically important industrial materials that are not currently covered by the EU’s lists of critical and strategic raw materials.
In a joint industry statement, European industrial organisations call for a European Resilience Mechanism for Strategic Industrial Materials to address vulnerabilities caused by geopolitical disruption, export restrictions, economic coercion and concentrated global supply chains. The proposed mechanism would enable the EU to rapidly identify non-listed materials at risk, assess their importance across the full value chain and coordinate appropriate policy, financing and supply-protection measures.
The statement highlights a gap in the current EU framework: some processed and synthetic materials may be essential to advanced manufacturing despite being used in relatively small volumes or falling outside existing critical-materials criteria. Disruptions to these inputs can nevertheless threaten production in strategically important European industries.
The proposed mechanism has three key elements:
- Rapid temporary designation of non-listed materials facing an actual or imminent supply disruption.
- Whole-chain mapping and representation, covering supply, processing, inventories, demand and downstream users, including SMEs.
- Coordinated activation of EU instruments, including trade measures, State aid, funding, strategic stockpiling, joint purchasing and supply diversification.
The statement also calls for longer-term action to diversify supply, qualify alternative sources, develop proportionate strategic stocks and support commercially viable European production, while maintaining competitive access for downstream users. A coordinated EU action plan should set out priority projects, financing options, responsible authorities and implementation milestones.