The CRM Act provides an opportunity to deliver a European industrial agenda supporting sustainable growth and our bloc’s strategic autonomy while ensuring raw materials production and transformation at the highest environmental and social standards. Creating greater complementarity between the different policy areas will further help to ensure the success of the twin transition and deliver the objectives of the EU Green Deal.

However, the classification of European raw materials must be improved, and raw materials that aren’t deemed ‘scarce’ or ‘rare’ should not be left behind. Policy makers should introduce measures for all raw materials industries to help increase their supply security, obtain greater investments, and scale up recycling capacity to recover valuable secondary raw materials.

European Aluminium stands ready to collaborate with the co-legislators to ensure that the Act includes aluminium and delivers on its promise to create a supportive regulatory environment for raw material supply chains and the net-zero industries they serve.

The NZI Act aims at maintaining competitiveness and reducing strategic import dependencies in key net-zero technology products and their supply chains, to make the European Union more investment and innovation friendly.

The Act recognises that for hard-to-abate sectors, including energy-intensive industries, the number of commercially available and scalable net zero technologies is currently limited. For those net zero technologies already in use or in the early stages of development, major reductions in cost and improvements in performance will be needed. Therefore, investments in research and innovation both at Union and national level continue to be important.

Nevertheless, the Act's wording could be improved. European Aluminium believes that there should be a stronger wording about carbon leakage, and especially investment leakage for trade and electro-intensive industries.