EU ‘pulling out all stops’ with minerals projects as it tries to avert China trade war

The EU is “pulling out all the stops” to fend off an imminent potential trade crisis with China, the industry commissioner, Stéphane Séjourné, has said, as the bloc announced its backing for a string of critical materials projects.Séjourné said on Friday that the EU would support 46 new strategic projects to accelerate supplies of critical raw materials by 2030 across the bloc.“We could face a crisis in the coming months,” he said. “We may face trade tensions that could also trigger a crisis in a number of sectors. We need to be prepared for that. And we’re getting ready right now.”The new projects include plants for supplies of lithium, gallium and rare earths needed for the auto, defence and renewable energy industries, with a funding cost of €21bn (£17.8bn).They were unveiled just as the EU works to avert a trade war with China, with the trade commissioner, Maroš Šefčovič, continuing talks on Friday in Beijing aimed at reducing China’s “unsustainable” £1bn-a-day trade surplus with the bloc.“We’re pulling out all the stops to move as quickly as possible. The primary objective is the targets set by law, and beyond that, there’s a geopolitical challenge that could catch up with us very quickly,” said Séjourné.“Mines are opening, factories are being built, financing agreements are being signed, and a European value chain is emerging,” Séjourné added.Amid some scepticism over the EU’s ability to meet its 2030 targets to reduce dependencies on China, Séjourné cited three “emblematic” projects which have previously been identified as strategic, earmarking them for accelerated permits.These included a rare earths plant near Pau in south-western France. The Carester plant, which is expected to be up and running in late 2026, produces dysprosium and terbium, “two raw materials for which we are almost entirely dependent on China”, used in magnets for electric vehicles and offshore wind turbines.“This single project could account for about 15% of global production of these oxides. That is no small feat,” Séjourné said.He also name-checked a gallium plant in Greece which is already up and running.The third, Keliber, a lithium extraction and processing plant in Finland, is also operational after €150m support from the European Investment Bank.The 46 projects are the second batch of initiatives to receive flagship status since the Critical Raw Materials Act of 2024, which legally mandates the European Commission to reduce the bloc’s dependency on foreign countries.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe EU hopes to follow in the footsteps of Japan, which has reduced dependency on China for rare earths to 60% from 90% since 2011, when Beijing prohibited exports of about 20 entities to Japan, claiming they were being used for military purposes.Although the flagship status does not bring the projects direct funds, it enables accelerated permitting, and help in mobilising funds.However, there has been criticism in industry within the EU that the scheme is not strong enough to deliver targets to mine 10%, process 40% and recycle 25% of the bloc’s needs by 2030.The French lithium refiner Viridian lithium, which received EU strategic status in 2025, went into judicial liquidation in March this year.Earlier this year, a group of 23 of the 60 projects designated strategic in 2025 wrote to the European Commission calling for more action to “urgently unlock projects, particularly those working towards final investment decision which face acute liquidity and market pressure and ​immediate jeopardy”.Séjourné said member states had unlocked €1bn for six of the projects, with the European Investment Bank providing another €660m for eight projects.