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October 12, 2026

Newsletter

The European Post

Policy • Diplomacy • strategic insight

LATEST
Social Security Coordination Reform Clears The Council After A DecadeCreative Europe 2027 Budget Sets €402 Million For Final YearNature Restoration Plans Reach Brussels As Review Clock StartsBerlin Sudan Aid Pledges Now Face A Delivery TestLebanon Tranche Ties EU Support For Lebanon To Reform GoalsLeaving The Parental Home Now Takes Until 26.3 Across The EUDigital Fairness Act Targets Dark Patterns Before Q4 DraftSatellite Operators Await The EU Space Act TriloguesCeuta Crisis Hangs Over Leaders Debate On Irregular Border CrossingsTen Warships Needed For Operation Aspides As Foreign Ministers MeetAmbassadors Weigh Digital Omnibus Cookie Rules On Sunday VoteHousing Exclusion Recommendation Heads To MinistersCapital Markets Supervision Package Wins A Council PositionPanama And Viet Nam Exit The EU Tax Blacklist In ReviewSixteen Capitals Run Late On The Consumer Credit Directive DeadlineBuilding Renovation Plans Leave Nine Capitals Facing EU Legal ActionEU-China Hybrid Car Deal Leaves Leaders To Judge Beijing’s OfferSwitzerland-EU Treaty Package Faces A Cantonal Majority Test In 2027Hybrid Threats Draw The EU Partnership Mission In ArmeniaFarm Quotas Hinge On The EU-Mercosur Interim Trade AgreementSocial Security Coordination Reform Clears The Council After A DecadeCreative Europe 2027 Budget Sets €402 Million For Final YearNature Restoration Plans Reach Brussels As Review Clock StartsBerlin Sudan Aid Pledges Now Face A Delivery TestLebanon Tranche Ties EU Support For Lebanon To Reform GoalsLeaving The Parental Home Now Takes Until 26.3 Across The EUDigital Fairness Act Targets Dark Patterns Before Q4 DraftSatellite Operators Await The EU Space Act TriloguesCeuta Crisis Hangs Over Leaders Debate On Irregular Border CrossingsTen Warships Needed For Operation Aspides As Foreign Ministers MeetAmbassadors Weigh Digital Omnibus Cookie Rules On Sunday VoteHousing Exclusion Recommendation Heads To MinistersCapital Markets Supervision Package Wins A Council PositionPanama And Viet Nam Exit The EU Tax Blacklist In ReviewSixteen Capitals Run Late On The Consumer Credit Directive DeadlineBuilding Renovation Plans Leave Nine Capitals Facing EU Legal ActionEU-China Hybrid Car Deal Leaves Leaders To Judge Beijing’s OfferSwitzerland-EU Treaty Package Faces A Cantonal Majority Test In 2027Hybrid Threats Draw The EU Partnership Mission In ArmeniaFarm Quotas Hinge On The EU-Mercosur Interim Trade Agreement

Strategic Raw Materials Projects Reach 46 In The Latest Selection

Edon Zhegrova
Legislative Tracker, Economic Security

Freiberg: The European Commission selected 46 new strategic raw materials projects on 9 October 2026, and Germany, home to Saxon mining towns such as Freiberg, won the largest national share. The strategic raw materials projects come from 102 applications and span 16 member states. They target 15 of the 17 strategic raw materials listed under the Critical Raw Materials Act, which has applied since May 2024.

The mix shows how far the Union now leans on recycling. Of the 46 strategic raw materials projects, 8 cover extraction, 11 cover processing and 19 cover recycling, while 8 combine several steps: three pair extraction with processing and five pair processing with recycling. Recycling therefore forms the largest single group, ahead of processing and extraction.

Battery metals dominate the list. Seven projects target lithium, twelve nickel, ten cobalt, five manganese and four graphite, and others cover rare earths for permanent magnets, magnesium and tungsten. Germany leads the national count with eight projects, four of them in recycling. They include lithium extraction and processing in Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, copper, lithium and battery recycling in North Rhine-Westphalia, permanent magnet recycling in Baden-Württemberg and titanium processing in Hesse.

The Critical Raw Materials Act sets three benchmarks for 2030: the Union should extract at least 10 percent of its annual demand, process 40 percent and recycle 25 percent. It also asks that no more than 65 percent of the annual demand for any strategic raw material come from a single third country. The reported assessment says the selection could fully meet the extraction targets for lithium and nickel and should reach the lithium processing target. Recycling targets for lithium and cobalt could also come within reach, and about 89 percent of the cobalt processing target could be covered.

Selection brings practical benefits. Strategic status gives a project faster permitting, with a cap of 27 months for extraction and 15 months for processing and recycling, and it helps promoters approach lenders. The Commission has not published an investment amount for the new strategic raw materials projects. Reports on the announcement put the money mobilised by RESourceEU since its launch at the end of 2025 at more than €2 billion, drawn from the Innovation Fund, state aid and the European Investment Bank.

Delivery decides whether the list matters. The first round in March 2025 picked 47 projects inside the Union, and the Commission added 13 projects in third countries in June 2025. Of those 2025 projects, 25 have completed environmental impact assessments and 17 hold construction permits. That record shows that selection does not equal a working mine or plant, and that local approvals still take time.

The Commission plans another call for strategic raw materials projects before the end of 2026. Promoters in Saxony and elsewhere will watch whether permits, power prices and offtake contracts arrive fast enough to turn 46 labels into output, because the Union cannot meet its 2030 benchmarks on paper alone. The new strategic raw materials projects give Europe a bigger pipeline, and the next two years will show how much of it reaches production.

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