Brussels wants to dig up more critical minerals in the bloc but says ‘regulatory bottlenecks’ are slowing things down.
The European Union will loosen water, chemicals and permitting laws to encourage more new mines in the bloc as it attempts to end its dependence on China for key raw materials.
The proposal is part of the European Commission’s RESourceEU plan, unveiled Wednesday, which aims to boost the extraction of minerals essential in key technologies like clean energy and defense. Currently the EU depends almost exclusively on imports of such minerals.
The EU should be taking more advantage of its natural resources, Environment Commissioner Jessika Roswall said on Wednesday, but added “there are long [waits] and some uncertainty on getting new permits due to different environmental legislations.”
The Commission will come up with “clear guidance” on the water laws early next year, Roswall said, adding: “We need to review and also revise the framework.” This will happen in the first half of 2026.
Other proposals in the plan would speed up environmental permitting for mines and consider special rules for the use of dangerous chemicals in mining activities under the REACH regulation.
“Regulatory bottlenecks must be unlocked to accelerate the production start of such relevant projects,” the plan reads. But it insists it would do this while “fully upholding the highest level of protection for workers, health, and the environment.”
Brussels also wants to boost its metals recycling sector by restricting the export of valuable critical raw material waste, and change some existing rules on waste shipments and labels to make it easier for EU countries to recycle each other’s garbage.
“Any raw materials that come into the EU shouldn’t leave the Union,” said Commissioner for Industry Stéphane Séjourné when he presented the plan on Wednesday.
Conflicting priorities
The EU is under intense pressure from businesses to reduce regulatory requirements on environmental impacts, which they consider a key obstacle to competitiveness.
Since the start of Ursula von der Leyen’s second term as European Commission president, the executive has put forward a long train of simplification packages, called omnibuses, rolling back requirements on businesses’ transition plans, environmental requirements for farmers, and restrictions on chemical use.
But the EU also has conflicting priorities, including the need to protect its strategic autonomy amid tougher relations with the U.S. and China, and the imperative of reigniting economic growth while keeping polluting greenhouse gas emissions down and restoring biodiversity.
The EU’s Water Framework Directive is Europe’s main water protection law. Among other things it regulates individual pollutants and sets corresponding standards. It’s the “key framework that is protecting people’s health and the quality of water, so we need to be very mindful of this,” Roswall acknowledged.
But with the EU looking to diversify and secure its access to precious minerals, permitting challenges for new mining projects posed by EU water rules are a key talking point for business groups, including mining lobby Euromines.
“We are squeezed between China and the U.S. and and we need to do something,” Roswall said.
More regulatory cuts coming
Separately, an upcoming “environmental omnibus” bill — aimed at cutting back or simplifying pieces of EU environmental law — is due for publication next Wednesday having been postponed by one week.
One component of next week’s bill will be a streamlining of environmental assessments for projects of “overriding public interest” like electricity grids and data centers, Roswall said. The release of the bill will coincide with the Commission’s release of a new package of reforms to the EU’s grids.
“I will say that we want to do some streamlining when it comes to permitting, when it comes to environmental assessments for strategic projects that have an overall, overriding public interest,” Roswall said. “That could be grids, it could be data centers, it could be circular economy projects.”
Several industry groups have been pushing for the inclusion of the Nature Restoration Law in the upcoming environmental omnibus bill — aimed at cutting back or simplifying pieces of EU environmental law.
It’s one of the issues still being debated among EU commissioners.
“There is an ongoing discussion with my colleagues here,” Roswall said, declining to comment in more depth. “I’m working with foremost targeted proposals, amendments or changes that can ease the administrative burden. That is the main thing.”