Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on June 23, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 23, 2026
The EU is advised to establish rare earths reserves to mitigate supply threats from China, enhancing raw material security.
(Reuters) -European Union countries should create joint reserves of rare earths to prevent supply chain disruptions and economic blackmail from China, the EU's Commissioner for Industrial Strategy, Stephane Sejourne, told the Handelsblatt newspaper.
Sejourne also said he would launch further tenders this year to promote alternative raw material sources, the German newspaper said.
"All European countries today have strategic reserves for oil and gas. We should do the same for strategic raw materials," Sejourne was quoted as saying on Monday.
The European Union in June announced 13 new raw material projects outside the bloc to increase its supplies of metals and minerals essential to its competitiveness in the energy transition as well as defence and aerospace.
The announcement followed China's decision in April to impose export curbs on rare earth magnets until new licences are obtained, leaving diplomats, carmakers and other companies from Europe and elsewhere scrambling to secure meetings with Beijing officials and avert factory shutdowns.
Sejourne also warned Beijing that the EU has the tools to defend itself in a potential trade war. "Europe must finally use the same weapons as its competitors," he said.
China in June said it attached great importance to the EU's concerns and would look into speeding up the approval process to ship rare earth exports to the EU.
(Reporting by Matthias Williams, editing by Thomas Seythal)
The EU's Commissioner for Industrial Strategy suggests that European countries should create joint reserves of rare earths to prevent supply chain disruptions and economic blackmail from China.
Rare earths are essential for the EU's competitiveness in the energy transition and are vital raw materials for various industries, including automotive and technology.
In June, the European Union announced 13 new raw material projects outside the bloc to enhance its supply of metals and minerals critical for its economy.
China stated that it attaches great importance to the EU's concerns and will look into speeding up the approval process for rare earth exports to the EU.
Sejourne warned that the EU has the tools to defend itself in a potential trade war and emphasized that Europe must use the same weapons as its competitors.
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