Law 115: Critical Raw Materials of strategic interest

  circular economy | August 20, 2024

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tuttoambiente

Critical Raw Materials of strategic interest, converted into Law 115, Legislative Decree 84. In Italy, Law no. 8 August 2024 came into force on 14 August 2024. 115 which converted, with amendments, the Decree-Law of 25 June 2024, n. 84 containing "Urgent provisions on critical raw materials of strategic interest".

The text intends to adapt the Italian Law to the provisions of Regulation (EU) 2024/1252 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 April 2024, which establishes a framework to guarantee a safe and sustainable supply of critical raw materials.

To this end, a governance system is put in place, strengthening the relevant supply chains and encouraging the development of strategic projects thanks to simplified authorization procedures.

The conversion law confirms the measures envisaged by the Legislative Decree. 84/2024 indicated below.

Governance relating to strategic raw materials

It is expected that the Interministerial Committee for the Ecological Transition (CITE), integrated by the Minister of Defense and the Minister for Civil Protection and Maritime Policies, will have to rule on the existence of any reasons preventing the acceptance of applications for recognition of the strategic character of a research, extraction, transformation or recycling project of strategic raw materials, to be implemented on the national territory, presented to the European Commission.

Three single national contact points have been identified within the competent Ministries for the issuing of authorizations for the extraction, recycling or transformation of strategic critical raw materials. The maximum deadline for issuing these licenses is 18 months for extraction and 10 months for recycling or transformation.

The Technical Committee for Critical and Strategic Raw Materials is established at the Ministry of Business and Made in Italy, with the following tasks:

• economic, technical and strategic monitoring of the supply chains of critical and strategic raw materials and the supply needs of companies;

• coordination and monitoring of the level of any available stocks for each strategic raw material at an aggregate level, and of the related level of safety.

The Technical Committee prepares and submits, every three years, for the approval of the CITE, integrated by the Ministry of Defense and the Minister for Civil Protection and Maritime Policies, a National Plan of critical raw materials, in which they are indicated, in a staff, the actions to be undertaken and the sources of financing available, as well as the expected objectives.

ISPRA - Geological Survey of Italy, on the basis of an agreement stipulated with the competent Ministries, is entrusted with the task of developing the National Exploration Program which includes:

• mineral mapping;

• geothermal campaigns;

• geognostic investigations;

• the processing of data acquired through general exploration.

Measures to accelerate and simplify the search for critical raw materials

The contact point established at the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security will receive communications of the research permit for strategic raw materials which do not exceed two years. The single point of contact will communicate this to the Technical Committee for strategic critical raw materials. The research activity can be started 30 days after the communication.

ISPRA and the territorially competent Superintendence are granted the functions of supervision and control over strategic research projects and compliance with the established requirements, as well as the power to order (informing the competent ministries) the interruption of the research permit in the event of detection of irregularities in carrying out research.

Establishment of production rates for mineral deposits

The holders of mining concessions relating to strategic projects involving the transformation of critical raw materials will have to annually pay the value of a share of the product (equal to a percentage between 5 and 7 percent) in favor of the State for projects at sea or in favor of the State and the region in which the deposit is located for projects on land. The sums paid to the State flow into the National Made in Italy Fund and are intended to support investments in the supply chain of critical strategic raw materials for the Nation.

Recovery of mineral resources from mining waste

The "Plan for the recovery of raw materials from historical extraction waste" is introduced, providing, among other things, that:

• the extraction of mineral substances in closed or abandoned extractive waste storage facilities, for which the mining title is no longer in force, can only be granted following the development, by the aspiring concessionaire, of a specific “Recovery plan” that demonstrates the economic and environmental sustainability of the entire life cycle;

• in contaminated sites already subject to a remediation process, the Plan must be evaluated in coherence with the remediation project;

• in relation to the storage facilities registered as potentially contaminated, the Plan must indicate the interventions necessary to contain the possible spread of polluting substances.

Acceleration of judgments regarding strategic projects

Simplified and accelerated procedures are envisaged, on the model of administrative judgments regarding PNRR, in relation to disputes regarding the recognition or issuance of the qualifications provided for by the decree for strategic projects relating to critical raw materials.

Register of companies and strategic value chains

A national register of companies and strategic value chains is established at the Ministry of Business and Made in Italy for the purposes of monitoring, measuring national needs and conducting stress tests.

National Made in Italy Fund

The National Made in Italy Fund, established in the forecast of the Ministry of Economy and Finance, is amended to support the growth, support, strengthening and relaunching of national strategic supply chains.

In particular, the list of destinations of the Fund's resources is integrated, also introducing the extraction and transformation of critical raw materials and the valorisation of the infrastructures instrumental to them; it is expected that the Fund's resources can be progressively increased also with resources coming from public administrations; the possibility of investments is also envisaged in risk instruments issued by joint-stock companies with registered office in Italy and not operating in the banking, financial or insurance sector, both in real estate assets, including public ones, instrumental to the operations of companies in strategic supply chains and in risk instruments issued by joint-stock companies linked to such assets; it is expected that more than one manager of the Fund may be identified, without prejudice to the spending limit for the payment of the commissions of the aforementioned managers (2,500,000 euros in total per year).

The investment funds established by the savings management company established by the Ministry of Economy and Finance will also be able to pursue the aims of the National Made in Italy Fund, namely: growth, support, strengthening and relaunching of national strategic supply chains, also in reference to the extraction and transformation of critical raw materials and the valorisation of the infrastructures instrumental to them. These funds will be able to invest in real estate assets, including public ones or deriving from concessions, instrumental to the operations of the companies in the strategic supply chains and in risk instruments issued by these companies whose return is linked to the aforementioned instrumental real estate assets".

Among the innovations introduced by the conversion law, we particularly highlight the art. 9 bis which extends to 31 December 2026 the deadline (expired on 30 June 2024) within which the entities responsible for particular photovoltaic systems can communicate to the GSE the choice to participate in a collective WEEE management system. It is also established that starting from 1 January 2025 the GSE will have to provide two annual time windows lasting sixty days, within which the entities responsible for the plants will be able to communicate to the GSE itself the choice to participate in a collective management system.

Finally, we point out the art. 14 bis which introduces provisions for the urgent supply of raw materials necessary for the Made in Italy production chains, not included in Regulation (EU) 2024/1252.