EC wants to secure raw materials and skip mining bottlenecks

The European Commission has adopted the RESourceEU Action Plan to enable mining activities, on 3 December. The objective of this plan is to secure the EU’s supply of critical raw materials, such as rare earth elements, cobalt and lithium. To promote mining activities across the continent the European Commission wants to revise the Water Framework Directive (WFD) again. The European water sector has expressed its concerns.

The RESourceEU Action Plan notes that the European Commission will review and revise the Water Framework Directive in the second quarter of 2026. “The Commission will do so by building on stakeholders’ input and experiences in Member States, paying particular attention to simplification and the need to address potential bottlenecks, in order to promote circularity and access to critical raw materials in the EU, while protecting the environment and human health”, the RESourceEU Action Plan states.

Accelerate EU projects

The European Commission aims to accelerate projects by mobilising financial tools and removing regulatory bottlenecks to fast-track strategic projects. The EU will mobilise up to €3 billion over the next 12 months to support concrete projects that can provide alternative supplies in the short term. The Commission, the European Investment Bank and Member States are already unlocking financial support for priority projects, such as for the Vulcan’s lithium extraction project in Germany, and the Greenland Resources’ Malmbjerg molybdenum project.

Mining threatens water protection rules

The European Federation of National Associations of Water Services EurEau expresses strong concerns about reopening the review of the WFD on its website. “A hasty reopening of the Water Framework Directive, mere months or weeks after the ongoing revision is to be concluded, would create considerable uncertainty for water operators and national authorities. The trilogue agreement reached last September on the WFD, just in time for the next River Basin Management Plans, is not yet adopted into law, and already under threat. This degree of legal instability undermines the effective protection of consumers, the environment, and water services”, EurEau states.

No EU standards for rare materials

Water organisations are worried about the consequences of mining for the water quality in Europe because standards for rare materials are still lacking. Lithium is one of the 34 critical raw materials listed by the EU under the Critical Raw Materials Act, and a key component in the EU’s quest to switch to clean energy. In September RIWA-Rhine sent a letter to the European Commission calling for the establishment of a European environmental quality standard for lithium in surface waters. “Lithium is an essential metal for most batterie but an environmental quality standard, such as those that do exist for other metals (zinc, copper, chromium), is still lacking,” RIWA-Rhine states. “Our latest annual report shows that the lithium concentration at Lobith already amounts to approximately 13 µg/L. By 2028, an estimated 200,000 tonnes of lithium salts will be extracted, processed, and recycled in the Rhine river basin. The planned recycling plant in Dormagen alone, from 2026 onwards, could increase the lithium concentration at Lobith by 8 µg/L.”