Ladies and Gentlemen,

Thank you for the warm welcome and the opportunity to address the 7th EIT Raw Materials Summit.

I would like to congratulate EIT Raw Materials on their 10th anniversary. Its crucial to have such communities, bringing together European innovation and excellence.

I want to share some thoughts on the global race for raw materials and how the circular economy can assist.

We need to ensure a stable and sustainable supply of raw materials. They are the backbone of our economy.

Global competition for raw materials has always defined international relations. The fight for control over raw materials has been a source of conflict throughout history and continues to be so.

We are now witnessing a new race - this time for the critical raw materials necessary for digitalisation and the green transition.

In the EU, as elsewhere in the world, demand for critical raw materials will skyrocket.

For instance, the need for rare earth metals will multiply by 7 and lithium by 20 by 2050.

All of this occurs in a context of uncertainty, instability, and a shifting geopolitical landscape.

Your title “Race to 2030” is very fitting. It is a global race against time, not only to gain a competitive advantage but because - in a linear economy - access to critical raw materials will define the speed at which we can decarbonise our economies and how competitive we will be.

But the race is not just about who gets there first.

The extraction and processing of minerals are responsible for nearly 20% of greenhouse gas emissions and 30% of pollution. Importing these materials brings its own issues. Long supply chains mean higher transport emissions, increased vulnerability to disruptions, and greater risks that environmental and social standards fall short of those upheld in the EU.

As Draghi rightly emphasized, we must seize this economic opportunity and ensure our economic security.

This is why we need to move away from linear value chains and promote circular practices in the EU.

Embracing circularity, by creating a thriving market for secondary raw materials, holds enormous potential for boosting our domestic economy while significantly reducing our environmental impact.

As highlighted in the Clean Industrial Deal, circularity brings competitiveness and decarbonisation together. Its at the heart of it.

We want to make the EU the world leader in circular economy by 2030. Thats the real 2030 race!

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have over 50 years of experience with waste legislation, and progress across the block is huge compared to most other countries worldwide.

Lets capitalize on this experience.

In recent years, we have already taken important steps by deploying new tools.

The Batteries Regulation ensures the recycling of critical raw materials in one of the fastest-growing sectors.

And with the Critical Raw Materials Act, we have the means to further boost recycling efforts. It targets key materials like permanent magnets and taps into the recovery potential from extractive waste.

We have carefully studied the key policy reports from the last year. The Draghi report and the Letta report contain useful recommendations that have inspired us. Some of the conclusions from those reports, together with stakeholder input, will be translated into the Circular Economy Act, planned for the end of 2026.

I hope this Act will give circularity a real boost. Most importantly, we need to create a single market for waste, secondary, and reusable materials. This is long overdue.

We intend to aim for 25% of consumed strategic raw materials coming from recycling by 2030.

The focus will be on generating market demand for secondary raw materials, reforming End of Waste criteria, and digitalising Extended Producer Responsibility schemes. These measures are designed to simplify the existing processes, making it easier for businesses to adopt circular practices.

Many of you have heard me say that it is often cheaper to import primary raw materials than to buy secondary raw materials made in the EU. That shouldnt be the case. We need to get the economics right.

These are some ideas. But we really need your input, suggestions, and ideas. We will launch a public consultation on the Circular Economy Act at the end of June.

Of course, work on circularity continues in the meantime. We are rolling out the ecodesign work programme, we are preparing guidance for the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, we are working on chemical recycling, to name just a few things.

Finally, we want to accelerate Europes bioeconomy. Not all bioeconomy is circular. But being based on natural and biological resources, the bioeconomy lends itself very well to circularity. And the bioeconomy is another way of diversifying the sourcing of raw material.

By tapping into a diverse array of sustainable biological inputs, we can reduce our reliance on traditional materials and minimise supply chain risks. The New EU Bioeconomy Strategy will untap this often overlooked potential, turning biological resources into sustainable growth.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we aim to make circular practices the norm, not the exception.

This is vital to ensure the competitiveness and resilience of European industries for the years ahead.

We need to speed up in this race, and we must do it together.

And that is why this summit is so important.

We need to foster dialogue and cooperation and today is the beginning of that process.

Thank you.