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Admin | August 4, 2024

REGULATION (EU) 2024/1252 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL

of 11 April 2024 establishing a framework to ensure a safe and sustainable supply of critical raw materials and amending Regulations (EU) no. 168/2013, (EU) 2018/858, (EU) 2018/1724 and (EU) 2019/1020

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, in particular Article 114,

having regard to the proposal of the European Commission,

following transmission of the draft legislative act to the national parliaments,

Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee (1),

acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure (2),

considering the following:

1) Access to raw materials is essential for the Union's economy and for the functioning of the internal market. There are a number of non-energy and non-agricultural raw materials that are considered critical as they are of great economic importance and are exposed to high supply risk, often caused by a high concentration of supply in a few third countries. Given the fundamental role of many of these critical raw materials in realizing the green and digital transitions and given their use in defense and aerospace applications, demand is expected to increase exponentially in the coming decades. At the same time, in a context of growing geopolitical tensions and ever-increasing competition for resources, the risk of supply disruptions is increasing. Furthermore, in the absence of adequate management, the increase in demand for critical raw materials could lead to negative environmental and social impacts.

(2) Given the complexity and transnational character of the value chains of critical raw materials, uncoordinated national measures to ensure their safe and sustainable supply risk undermining the functioning of the internal market. Critical raw materials are often mined in specific countries or regions, depending on the geographic distribution of their reserves, transported elsewhere for further processing, and then sold throughout the domestic market for use in various products. In the processing phase, critical raw materials are often imported and exported multiple times into the domestic market before being used in a final application. Similarly, end-of-life recycling of products to recover critical raw materials may often take place in countries or regions other than those in which the waste is collected, and the resulting secondary raw materials are likely to be re-exported for recycling. further processed and used. Furthermore, critical raw materials are needed at the beginning of many industrial value chains and are often indispensable inputs for a wide range of strategic sectors, including renewable energy, digital industry and the aerospace and defense sectors. They therefore play an essential role in supporting economic activities in the internal market and supply disruptions could have a significant cross-border impact between Member States.

(3) In this context, uncoordinated actions by Member States risk distorting competition and fragmenting the internal market, for example by imposing divergent regulation on market operators, providing different levels of access to supply risk monitoring, providing different levels of support to national projects or creating obstacles to cross-border trade of critical raw materials or related goods between Member States, thus creating obstacles to the proper functioning of the internal market. Furthermore, individual actions by Member States may not be sufficient to effectively prevent disruptions to the supply of critical raw materials or may be less efficient in achieving this objective.

(4) In order to safeguard the functioning of the internal market, it is therefore appropriate to establish a common Union framework to ensure access to a secure and sustainable supply of critical raw materials and to safeguard economic resilience and open strategic autonomy of the Union.

(5) First, that framework should define the raw materials considered to be strategic and critical and strengthen the resilience of the supply chains of those raw materials in the Union, including by identifying and supporting certain raw materials projects, recognizing them as strategic projects ( 'strategic projects') and seeking to incentivize technological progress and resource efficiency in order to moderate the expected increase in the consumption of critical raw materials in the Union. Secondly, it is necessary to include measures to strengthen the Union's capacity to monitor and mitigate current and future supply risks. Third, the framework should contain measures to increase the circularity and sustainability of critical raw materials consumed in the Union.

(6) In order to ensure that the measures established in this Regulation focus on the most relevant raw materials, a list of strategic raw materials and a list of critical raw materials should be established. These lists should be based on clear methodologies, the application of which should be communicated by the Commission in an open and transparent way. Those lists should also serve to guide and coordinate the efforts of Member States to contribute to the achievement of the objectives of this Regulation. The list of strategic raw materials should contain raw materials that are of great strategic importance for the functioning of the internal market, taking into account their use in strategic technologies underlying the green and digital transitions or in defense or aerospace applications, which are characterized by a potentially significant gap between supply and expected demand at a global level and whose production is relatively difficult to increase, among other things, also due to the long implementation times of new projects which increase supply capacity. To take into account possible technological and economic changes, the list of strategic raw materials should be periodically reviewed and, if necessary, updated. In order to ensure that efforts to increase Union capacities along the value chain, to strengthen the Union's capacity to monitor and mitigate supply risks and to increase supply diversification focus on raw materials for where they are most needed, certain relevant measures should apply exclusively to the list of strategic raw materials. Member States should not be precluded from creating additional lists based on their specific national needs or from taking appropriate measures at national level.

(7) The list of critical raw materials should include all strategic raw materials, as well as any other raw materials of major importance for the entire Union economy, for which there is a high risk of supply disruption likely to distort competition and fragmenting the internal market. In addition to strategic technologies, other sectors could also be exposed to high supply risks in the future. To take into account possible technological and economic changes, the Commission should, in line with current practice, periodically carry out an assessment based on data on production, exchange, applications, recycling and substitution for a wide range of raw materials, with a view to updating the lists of strategic and critical raw materials to reflect the evolving economic importance and supply risk associated with these raw materials in the internal market. The list of critical raw materials should include raw materials that have reached or exceeded thresholds for both economic importance and supply risk, without assigning an order of importance in terms of criticality to the relevant raw materials. This assessment should be based on an average of the latest available data over a five-year period. The measures regarding single point of contact, planning, exploration, monitoring, circularity and sustainability provided for in this Regulation should apply to all critical raw materials.

(8) The lists of strategic and critical raw materials should use established names for the listed raw materials. For the list of strategic raw materials, the names should refer, where appropriate, to the degree of refinement that a raw material must reach in order to be used for the production of strategic technologies. References to strategic and critical raw materials should be understood as referring to the entire value chain of such raw materials, including in their unprocessed form and in all stages of transformation leading, if applicable, to the specified grade. It is appropriate to provide exceptional clarification for the aluminum value chain, mentioning, in addition to aluminum, bauxite, its most important mineral, and alumina, its intermediate transformation form. In many cases strategic and critical raw materials are extracted, processed or recycled as by-products of other major extraction, transformation and recycling processes. Therefore, the by-product nature of the raw materials should not affect their inclusion in the list or their inclusion in the scope of the relevant provisions of this Regulation.

(9) In order to support the implementation of tasks relating to the development of strategic projects and their financing, exploration programmes, monitoring capabilities or strategic stocks and in order to provide the Commission with appropriate advice, it is appropriate to establish a European Committee for Critical Raw Materials (‘the Board’). The committee should be composed of representatives of the Member States and the Commission, with the possibility of ensuring the participation of other parties as observers, in particular the European Parliament. In order to develop the expertise needed to carry out certain tasks, the Committee should establish permanent subgroups on financing, social acceptability, exploration, monitoring and strategic stockpiles, as well as one on circularity, efficiency of resources and substitution, which should act as a network bringing together relevant national authorities and, when necessary, consult industry, academia, civil society and other stakeholders. The advice and opinions of the Committee should not be binding and the absence of such advice or opinions should not prevent the Commission from carrying out its tasks under this Regulation.

(10) It is necessary to put in place appropriate measures to establish a common approach to strategic Union projects active in the extraction, processing or recycling of strategic raw materials or contributing to the production of substitute materials. Such strategic projects, together with Member States' efforts, should help increase capacities to ensure a secure supply of strategic raw materials. Other measures, particularly concerning exploration or circularity, are also intended to contribute to the strengthening of the different stages of the value chain.

(11) To reduce the growing risk of disruptions to Union supply that could distort competition and fragment the internal market, the Commission and the Member States should strengthen capacity at different stages of the value chain of strategic raw materials, in order to contribute to the achievement of Union capacity benchmarks and supply diversification. Those benchmarks should help guide efforts to strengthen Union capacities along all stages of the value chain of strategic raw materials, including extraction, processing and recycling, and to increase the diversification of external supplies of strategic raw materials. The objective should be to increase capacities for each strategic raw material at each stage of the value chain, while aiming to achieve overall Union-wide capacity benchmarks for the extraction, processing and recycling of materials strategic firsts. First, the Union should increase the use of its geological resources of strategic raw materials and equip itself with capacities that allow it to extract the raw materials necessary to cover at least 10 % of the Union's consumption of strategic raw materials. Taking into account the fact that extraction capacity is highly dependent on the availability of geological resources in the Union, the achievement of that benchmark depends on that availability. Secondly, in order to create a complete value chain and avoid any bottlenecks in the intermediate stages, the Union's processing capacity should also be increased and the Union should be able to cover at least 40 % of the annual consumption of strategic raw materials . Third, an increasing share of the consumption of strategic raw materials in the Union could be expected to be covered by secondary raw materials in the coming decades, which would improve both the security and sustainability of the Union's raw material supply. The Union's recycling capacity should therefore be able to cover at least 25 % of the annual consumption of strategic raw materials in the Union and the Union should be able to recycle a significantly increasing amount of each strategic critical material from waste. For waste streams and strategic raw materials for which sufficient information is available to estimate the Union's recycling capacity expressed in terms of the share of strategic raw materials contained in those waste streams, an additional benchmark should be set waste-based. Accompanying efforts to improve resource efficiency through research and innovation, substitution, awareness-raising and other relevant measures will also facilitate the achievement of these benchmarks. The time horizon of those benchmarks is 2030, in line with the climate and energy objectives set out in Regulation (EU) 2021/1119 of the European Parliament and of the Council (3) and with the digital objectives set out in the Decision (EU) 2022/2481 of the European Parliament and of the Council (4), which they support. Furthermore, the creation of skilled jobs, including inter alia skills development and transitions from one job to another, will address the risks present in the sector's labor market and help ensure the competitiveness of the sector. Union. The Commission and Member States should also incentivize technological progress and resource efficiency in order to keep the expected increase in the consumption of critical raw materials in the Union below appropriate baseline projections. In the context of the preparation of implementing measures under Directive 2009/125/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (5), the Commission should consider the possible contribution of ecodesign requirements to the achievement of the Union priorities set out in this regulation.

(12) As regards some raw materials, the Union's supply depends almost exclusively on a single country. Such dependencies create a high risk of supply disruptions that could distort competition and fragment the internal market. In order to contain that potential risk and increase the economic resilience of the Union, it is appropriate to ensure that by 2030 the Union is not more than 65 % dependent on a single third country for the supply of any strategic raw material, unprocessed and in any stage of transformation, paying particular attention, however, to countries with which the Union has established a strategic partnership ('strategic partnership'), a free trade agreement or other forms of cooperation relating to raw materials, as they provide greater guarantees on supply risks.

(13) In order to ensure compliance with the benchmarks in a timely manner, the Commission, supported by the Committee, should monitor and report on the progress made towards achieving the benchmarks and towards containing demand. If the progress towards the benchmarks and demand containment presented in the report is generally insufficient, the Commission should assess the feasibility and proportionality of additional measures. A lack of progress regarding a single or small set of strategic raw materials should not, in principle, lead to the need to intensify the Union's efforts.

(14) The Commission, with the support of the Board, should identify projects in the Union to initiate or expand the extraction, processing or recycling of strategic raw materials or the production and deployment of materials that can replace raw materials strategies in strategic technologies, with the aim of recognizing such projects as strategic projects. Effective support for strategic projects has the potential to improve access to strategic raw materials for downstream sectors, create economic opportunities along the value chain, including for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and contribute to job creation . Therefore, in order to ensure the development of strategic projects across the Union, such projects should benefit from simplified and predictable authorization procedures and support in accessing finance. Such measures could also inspire improvements in other permitting procedures and in access to finance for critical or other raw materials projects. Before receiving such support, projects should be assessed against a set of criteria, in order to ensure their added value and to target the support. Raw materials projects where strategic raw materials are a by-product, including ferrous scrap, should also be eligible for such support if they meet all relevant criteria. To be recognized as strategic projects in the Union, the projects should strengthen the security of supply of strategic raw materials to the Union. Projects should also demonstrate sufficient technical feasibility, including the expected volume of strategic raw materials or substitute materials with which they increase the Union's capacity, excluding materials produced for research purposes, be implemented in an environmentally sustainable manner and social, as well as present cross-border benefits, beyond the Member States concerned, including spillover effects further down the value chain. If the Commission considers that these criteria are met, it should publish the recognition of the project as strategic through a decision. Since rapid recognition is crucial to effectively support the Union's security of supply, the assessment process should remain simple and not excessively burdensome.

(15) When assessing whether a project in a third country or an overseas country or territory (OCT) contributes to the security of supply of the Union, it is appropriate to take into account, in particular, the status of the OCTs under the Union law. The OCTs can contribute to the Union's secure access to a sustainable supply of strategic and critical raw materials, in particular within the framework of strategic partnerships.

(16) The Commission, with the help of the Committee, should identify strategic projects in third countries or OCTs to initiate or expand the extraction, processing or recycling of strategic raw materials, or the production of materials that can replace strategic raw materials in strategic technologies. To ensure their effective implementation, strategic projects should benefit from improved access to finance, for example through access to investment risk reduction mechanisms. In order to ensure their added value, projects should be evaluated against a set of criteria. Like strategic projects in the Union, strategic projects in third countries should enhance the security of supply of strategic raw materials to the Union and should demonstrate sufficient technical feasibility. Both strategic projects in the Union and strategic projects in third countries or OCTs should respect the same level of social and environmental sustainability. To become a strategic project in an emerging market or developing economy, a project should be mutually beneficial for the Union and the third country concerned and bring added value in that country, also taking into account its coherence with the common commercial policy of the Union. Such value could arise from a project's contribution to more than one stage of the value chain, as well as from the realization, through the project, of broader economic and social benefits, including job creation in line with international standards. If the Commission considers that these criteria are met, it should publish the recognition of the project as strategic through a decision.

(17) In order to ensure the sustainability of increased production of critical raw materials, new critical raw materials projects should be planned and implemented in a sustainable way, covering all sustainability aspects highlighted in the Commission's publication of 11 September 2021 entitled 'EU Principles for Sustainable Raw Materials', including ensuring environmental protection, preventing and minimizing socially negative impacts through the use of socially sustainable practices, including respecting human rights, such as women's rights, and transparent business practices. Projects should also ensure good faith engagement and extensive and fair consultations with stakeholders, such as local communities and indigenous peoples. Particular attention should be paid to respecting human rights where a project involves potential resettlement. In order to enable project promoters to fulfill that criterion in a clear and efficient manner, compliance with Union or national law, relevant international standards, guidelines and principles, as applicable, or participation in a certification system recognized in accordance with this Regulation.

(18) In line with the precautionary principle, the Commission should not recognize deep seabed mining projects as strategic projects before the effects of deep seabed mining on the marine environment, biodiversity and human activities have been sufficiently studied, the risks have been understood and the technologies and operational practices are capable of demonstrating that the environment is not seriously harmed.

(19) Any promoter of a strategic raw materials project should be able to apply to the Commission for recognition of its project as a strategic project. The application should include relevant documents and evidence relating to the criteria. In order to better assess the social, environmental and economic sustainability, feasibility of the project, as well as the level of reliability of the estimates, the project promoter should also provide a classification of the project according to the United Nations Resource Framework Classification. To enable objective validation of this classification, the project promoter should support it with relevant evidence. A project timetable should also be attached to the application, in order to estimate when the project could contribute to achieving the benchmarks regarding internal capacity or diversification. Since the social acceptability of mining projects is crucial for their effective implementation, the project promoter should also provide a plan containing measures to facilitate this. Particular attention should be paid to the social partners, civil society and supervisory bodies. The project promoter should also submit a business plan that contains information regarding the financial sustainability of the project and provides an overview of the financing, ownership structure and product purchase agreements of the project already secured, as well as estimates regarding the potential creation of jobs and the project's needs in terms of a skilled workforce, as well as upskilling and reskilling. In order to harmonize the application process, the Commission should provide a single application template.

(20) Applications relating to projects which may have an impact on indigenous peoples should include a plan containing measures aimed at constructive consultation of the indigenous peoples concerned, prevention and minimization of adverse impacts on those indigenous peoples and, where appropriate to fair compensation. If such concepts are covered by the national law applicable to the project, the plan could instead describe such measures. For projects in third countries involving extraction activities which fall outside the scope of Directive 2006/21/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (6), the project promoter should also provide a plan to improve the environmental status of the affected sites after the end of the extraction. If the project is located in a protected area, the project promoter should evaluate technically suitable alternative locations and describe them in a plan, giving reasons why they are not considered suitable for the location of the project.

(21) To structure the process, the Commission should organize an open call with regular deadline dates, corresponding to the dates of the Committee meetings, for project promoters to apply for recognition of their projects as strategic projects. In order to provide clarity to project promoters regarding their applications for strategic projects, the Commission should respect a deadline for deciding whether to recognize a project as strategic. To deal with particularly complex cases or a large number of applications at a deadline, the Commission should be able to extend that deadline once. It should share its assessment with the committee before it meets and should take the committee's opinion into account when deciding whether to recognize a project as a strategic project.

(22) Since, to ensure the effective implementation of a strategic project, the cooperation of the Member State on whose territory the project will be implemented is necessary, that Member State should have the right to object and thus prevent a project from being recognized as a project strategy against his will. In that case, the Member State should provide the reasons for the refusal, making reference to the criteria provided for in this Regulation. Similarly, the Union should not recognize a project as a strategic project where it is to be implemented by a third country against the will of the government of that country and should therefore refrain from doing so if the government of a third country objects.

(23) To avoid abuse of strategic project status, the Commission should be able to withdraw the recognition of a strategic project, providing reasons, after consulting the committee and the responsible project promoter, in case the strategic project no longer meets the conditions or if the recognition was based on an application containing incorrect information relevant for the assessment of the selection criteria. In order to attract long-term investments and ensure legal certainty, in case of updates to the list of strategic raw materials in an annex, a strategic project should maintain its status for a reasonable period after the revocation.

(24) In light of their importance for ensuring security of supply of strategic raw materials and safeguarding the functioning of the internal market, strategic projects should be considered to be in the public interest. Ensuring the security of supply of strategic raw materials is of fundamental importance both for the success of the green and digital transitions and for the resilience of the defense and aerospace sectors. In order to contribute to the security of supply of strategic raw materials in the Union, Member States should be able to provide support for national permitting procedures to accelerate the implementation of strategic projects in accordance with Union law.

(25) The national permitting procedure ensures that projects relating to critical raw materials are safe and secure and comply with environmental, social and safety requirements. Union environmental law establishes common conditions for the content of the national permit granting procedure, thus ensuring a high level of environmental protection and enabling the sustainable exploitation of the Union's potential along the raw material value chain. The recognition of a project as a strategic project should therefore be without prejudice to any conditions applicable to the granting of authorizations for the relevant projects, including those set out in Directive 2011/92/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council (7), Directive 92 /43/EEC of the Council (8), Directive 2000/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (9), Directive 2010/75/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council (10), Directive 2004/35/ EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (11), Directive 2009/147/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (12) and Directive 2006/21/EC.

(26) At the same time, the unpredictability, complexity and sometimes excessive duration of national permitting procedures put at risk the security of investments necessary for the effective development of strategic raw materials projects. The structure and duration of project permitting procedures can also vary significantly between Member States. Therefore, in order to ensure and accelerate their effective implementation, Member States should apply simplified and predictable permitting procedures to strategic projects. To this end, strategic projects should have a priority status at national level aimed at ensuring their rapid administrative management and urgent treatment in all judicial and dispute resolution proceedings affecting them. This Regulation should not prevent competent authorities from streamlining the granting of permits for projects on the value chain of critical raw materials which are not strategic projects.

(27) The permitting authority should consider strategic projects to be of public interest, given their role in ensuring the Union's security of supply of strategic raw materials and their contribution to the open strategic autonomy of the Union and the green and digital transitions. Strategic projects which have a negative impact on the environment, to the extent that they fall within the scope of Directives 2000/60/EC, 92/43/EEC or 2009/147/EC or of Union legislation on restoration of terrestrial, coastal and freshwater ecosystems, should be permitted to be permitted where the permitting authority concludes, on the basis of a case-by-case assessment, that the public interest served by the project outweighs those impacts , provided that all relevant conditions established in those legal acts are met. The case-by-case assessment should take due account of the geological specificity of extraction sites, which constrains siting decisions due to the lack of alternative locations for such sites.

(28) In order to reduce the complexity and improve the efficiency and transparency of the permitting process, promoters of projects relating to critical raw materials should be able to interact with a single point of contact responsible for facilitating and coordinating the entire authorization granting procedure. To this end, Member States should establish or designate one or more contact points, while ensuring that project promoters have to interact with a single contact point. It should be up to Member States to decide whether a single point of contact is also an authority taking authorization decisions. Member States should provide their single points of contact with sufficient staff and resources to enable them to carry out their responsibilities effectively. Furthermore, the project promoter should be able to contact a relevant administrative unit within the single point of contact to ensure that there is accessible contact.

(29) Depending on their internal organisation, Member States should be able to decide whether to establish or designate their single contact points at local, regional or national level, or at any other relevant administrative level. Furthermore, Member States should be able to establish or designate, at the administrative level of their choice, different single contact points focusing exclusively on projects related to critical raw materials covering a specific stage of the value chain, namely extraction, processing or recycling. At the same time, project promoters should be able to easily identify the single point of contact responsible for their project. To this end, Member States should ensure that, in the geographical area corresponding to the administrative level at which they have chosen to establish or designate their single point of contact, there is only one single point of contact responsible for a specific step of the value chain . Since many projects relating to critical raw materials cover more than one stage of the value chain, Member States should ensure the timely designation of a single point of contact for such projects to avoid confusion.

(30) In order to ensure clarity regarding the status of strategic projects with regard to the granting of permits and to limit the effectiveness of possible unjustified litigation, without however prejudice to effective judicial review, Member States should ensure that any disputes concerning the authorization procedure for strategic projects are resolved promptly. To this end, Member States should ensure that project applicants and promoters have access to simple dispute resolution procedures and that strategic projects are subject to urgent treatment in all judicial and dispute resolution procedures involving them. concern, if and to the extent that national law provides for similar emergency procedures.

(31) In order to enable citizens and businesses to directly benefit from the benefits of the internal market without incurring additional unnecessary administrative burdens, Regulation (EU) 2018/1724 of the European Parliament and of the Council (13), which established the single digital gateway, provides general rules for the provision of online information, procedures and assistance services relevant to the functioning of the internal market. The information requirements and procedures established by this Regulation should comply with the requirements of Regulation (EU) 2018/1724. In this case, it should be ensured that promoters of a strategic project can access and carry out the procedures relating to permit granting procedures entirely online, in accordance with Article 6(1) and Annex II of Regulation (EU) 2018 /1724.

(32) In order to provide project promoters and other investors with the necessary certainty and clarity to enhance the development of strategic projects, Member States should ensure that the process for granting authorizations for such projects does not exceed pre-established deadlines. As regards strategic projects involving only transformation or recycling, the duration of the permit granting procedure should not exceed 15 months. Regarding strategic projects involving extraction, in consideration of the complexity and scale of potential impacts, the duration of the authorization procedure should not exceed 27 months. However, the preparation of the environmental impact assessment report under Directive 2011/92/EU is the responsibility of the project promoter and should not be included in the deadlines to which Member States are bound. To this end, the single point of contact should notify the date by which the project promoter has to submit the environmental impact assessment report and any period between that notified date and the actual submission of the report should not be counted towards ends of the terms. The same principle should apply when, after the necessary consultations, the single contact point notifies the project promoter of the possibility to submit additional information to complete the environmental impact assessment report. In exceptional cases related to the nature, complexity, location or size of the proposed project, Member States should be able to extend the deadlines. Such exceptional cases could concern unforeseen circumstances that lead to the need to integrate or complete the environmental assessments relating to the project.

(33) Member States should ensure that responsible authorities have sufficient resources and staff to enable those authorities to effectively comply with the deadlines imposed on them. Through the technical support instrument established by Regulation (EU) 2021/240 (14), the Commission should provide Member States, upon their request, with support for the design, development and implementation of reforms which also cover the Strengthening administrative capacity relating to the national licensing procedure, such as the single point of contact.

(34) Environmental assessments and permits required under Union law, including as regards water, soil, habitats and birds, form an integral part of the permit granting procedure for a raw materials project and represent an essential safeguard to ensure the prevention or minimization of negative environmental impacts. However, in order to ensure that the permitting process for strategic projects is predictable and timely, any possibility to simplify the required assessments and permitting should be exploited, without reducing the level of environmental protection or the quality of the assessments. To this end, the necessary assessments should be aggregated through a joint or coordinated procedure to avoid unnecessary overlap. Furthermore, project promoters and responsible authorities should be able to explicitly express their agreement on the scope of the aggregate evaluation before its implementation, in order to avoid unnecessary monitoring actions. Finally, for the purposes of such a joint or coordinated procedure, project promoters should be able to interact with a single authority.

(35) Land use conflicts can create obstacles to the implementation of critical raw materials projects. Well-designed plans, including territorial and zoning plans, which take into account the possibility of implementing projects relating to critical raw materials and whose potential environmental impacts are assessed, can help to balance public goods and interests, reducing the risk of conflicts and accelerating the sustainable implementation of critical raw materials projects in the Union. Responsible national, regional and local authorities should therefore consider including provisions regarding critical raw materials projects when drawing up relevant plans. This is without prejudice to existing requirements regarding the assessment of the potential environmental impacts of such plans and the required quality of such assessments.

(36) Within the Union, it is often difficult to access funding for the implementation of projects relating to critical raw materials. Critical commodity markets are often characterized by high price volatility, long timeframes, high concentration and opacity. Furthermore, financing the sector requires a high level of specialist knowledge which financial institutions often lack. To address these issues and help ensure a stable and reliable supply of strategic raw materials, Member States and the Commission should offer assistance in accessing finance and administrative support.

(37) A strong European value chain is necessary to ensure security of supply in order to safeguard the functioning of the internal market and increasing capacities can only be achieved with adequate financial means, part of which could come from Community funds. 'Existing Union. Projects relating to critical raw materials, including strategic projects, may be eligible for such funds if the requirements of the relevant programs are met, for example in relation to geographical location, environment or their contribution to innovation. Relevant funds include cohesion policy programmes, such as the European Regional Development Fund established by Regulation (EU) 2021/1058 of the European Parliament and of the Council (15), whose awarding of grants to promote regional cohesion can enable SMEs to develop innovative projects, for example linked to the reduction of energy consumption in the transformation of raw materials. The Just Transition Fund, established by Regulation (EU) 2021/1056 of the European Parliament and of the Council (16), could also be used to support this type of projects, provided that they contribute to reducing social and economic costs of the green transition. Furthermore, the Recovery and Resilience Facility established by Regulation (EU) 2021/241 of the European Parliament and of the Council (17), in particular its chapter dedicated to the REPowerEU plan, focusing on energy security and diversification of energy supply , could be mobilized to support projects involving, for example, the recycling or recovery of raw materials. The Innovation Fund established by Directive 2003/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (18), the objective of which is in particular to market clean and innovative technologies, could award grants, inter alia, to enable the development of raw material recycling capacity related to low-carbon technologies. Furthermore, InvestEU, established by Regulation (EU) 2021/523 of the European Parliament and of the Council (19), is the Union's flagship program for stimulating investment, in particular in the context of the green and digital transition, by providing financing and technical assistance. Through the use of blended financing mechanisms, InvestEU helps to attract additional public and private capital. The Commission will work with InvestEU implementing partners to increase support and investment for relevant projects, in line with the common objectives set out in Regulation (EU) 2021/523 and this Regulation. Finally, projects in third countries contributing to the diversification of the Union's supply could be supported through relevant funds, such as the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument and the European Fund for Sustainable Development Plus, established by the Regulation ( EU) 2021/947 of the European Parliament and of the Council (20).

(38) In order to overcome the limitations of public and private investment efforts, which are currently often fragmented, and facilitate investment integration and profitability, the Commission, Member States and promotional banks should improve coordination and create synergies between existing funding programs at Union and national level, as well as ensuring better coordination and collaboration with industry and key private sector stakeholders. To this end, a dedicated subgroup of the Committee should be established, bringing together experts from the Member States and the Commission, as well as from relevant public financial institutions. This sub-group should discuss the funding needs of individual strategic projects and the existing funding possibilities available to them in order to provide project promoters with an indication of how best to access these funding possibilities. When discussing possibilities for financing strategic projects in third countries and making recommendations in this regard, the Committee should take into account in particular the 'Global Gateway' strategy, set out in the joint communication from the Commission and the High Representative of the Union for foreign affairs and security policy, of 1 December 2021, entitled "The Global Gateway".

(39) Private investments from companies, financial investors and buyers of project products are essential. If private investment alone is not sufficient, public support, for example in the form of guarantees, loans or equity or quasi-equity investments, may be required to ensure the effective implementation of projects along the value chain of critical raw materials. Such public support may constitute State aid. Such State aid should have an incentive effect and be necessary, adequate and proportionate. The current state aid regulations, which have recently been subject to an in-depth review in line with the objectives of the dual transition, offer broad possibilities for supporting investments along the value chain of critical raw materials, under certain conditions.

(40) Public support is used to address specific identified market failures or sub-optimal investment situations, in a proportionate way, and actions should not duplicate or exclude private financing or distort competition in the internal market. The actions should have clear added value for the Union.

(41) The volatility of prices of several strategic raw materials, exacerbated by limited means to cover them on futures markets, creates an obstacle both for project promoters seeking to secure financing for strategic raw materials projects and for consumers valley who intend to guarantee stable and predictable prices for key production factors. In an effort to reduce uncertainty about future prices of strategic raw materials and thus limit supply risk to safeguard the functioning of the internal market, it is necessary to provide for the establishment of a system that allows both purchasers of the affected project products and promoters of strategic projects to indicate their purchase or sale offers and to get in touch if the respective offers are potentially compatible.

(42) Existing knowledge and mapping of raw material presences in the Union were developed at a time when ensuring the supply of critical raw materials for the development of strategic technologies was not a priority. The lack of up-to-date geological information on critical raw materials in the Union could jeopardize the development of extraction projects, thus weakening efforts to reduce supply risk and safeguard the functioning of the internal market. To acquire and update information on the presence of critical raw materials, Member States should develop, where appropriate on the basis of geological conditions, national mapping programs for the general exploration of critical raw materials and the main minerals from which they are extracted . They should include measures such as geological mapping, geochemical campaigns, geoscientific investigations and reprocessing of existing geoscientific datasets. This increases the likelihood of locating new deposits, which in turn should stimulate investment in exploration. Exploration programs should also consider the use of new techniques that allow the identification of mineralization at greater depths than conventional techniques. To facilitate the development of extraction projects, Member States should make public certain basic information acquired during their national exploration programmes, using, where appropriate, the Spatial Information Infrastructure framework established by the 2007 Directive /2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (21), and providing more detailed information where requested. The Commission should be able to issue guidelines to promote a harmonized format for exploration programmes.

(43) Space-based data and services derived from Earth observation can support efforts to create sustainable value chains of critical raw materials by providing a continuous flow of information, which could be useful for activities such as monitoring and management of mining areas, the assessment of environmental and socio-economic impacts or the exploration of mineral resources. Since Earth observation can also provide data on remote and inaccessible areas, Member States should, as far as possible, take this into account when designing and implementing national exploration programmes.

(44) While strengthening the value chain of critical raw materials in the Union is necessary to ensure greater security of supply, supply chains of critical raw materials will remain global and exposed to external factors. Recent or ongoing events, ranging from the COVID-19 crisis to unprovoked and unjustified military aggression against Ukraine, have underlined the vulnerability of some of the Union's supply chains to disruption. To ensure that industries in the Union and in the Member States are able to anticipate supply disruptions and are prepared to bear their consequences, measures should be developed to enhance monitoring capacity, coordinate strategic stockpiles and strengthen emergency preparedness. businesses.

(45) When it comes to risk awareness and anticipation, Member States do not have the same capabilities and have not all developed dedicated structures that monitor supply chains of critical raw materials and that could inform businesses about potential risks of disruption to the supply. Similarly, while some businesses have invested in monitoring their supply chains, others lack the capacity to do so. Therefore, in light of the global dimension of supply chains of critical raw materials and their complexity, the Commission should develop a dedicated operational monitoring framework that assesses the supply risks of critical raw materials and ensures that the information collected is made available to public authorities and private entities, thus increasing synergies between Member States. To ensure that Union value chains are sufficiently prepared to deal with potential supply disruptions that could distort competition and fragment the internal market, such as those caused by geopolitical conflicts, the Commission should conduct stress tests to assess the vulnerability of supply chains of strategic raw materials and their exposure to supply risks. Member States should contribute to this exercise by conducting, where possible, such stress tests through their national procurement and information bodies on critical raw materials. The Board should ensure coordination of the implementation of stress tests by the Commission and Member States. In case no Member State has the capacity to carry out the required stress tests for a given strategic raw material, the Commission should conduct them itself. The Commission should also suggest potential strategies that can be adopted by public authorities and private entities in order to mitigate supply risks, such as building strategic stocks or further diversification of supply. In order to collect the information necessary for the implementation of measures relating to monitoring and stress testing, the Commission should coordinate with the relevant permanent subgroup of the Committee, while Member States should identify and monitor key market operators.

(46) Strategic stocks represent an important tool for mitigating supply disruptions, in particular for critical raw materials. While the Single Market Emergency Facility as proposed by the Commission would allow for the possible development of such strategic stockpiles in case the Single Market Surveillance Mode is activated, Member States and companies are not obliged to build up their stockpiles strategies before a supply disruption. Furthermore, there is no Union-wide coordination mechanism that allows for a common assessment and analysis of potential overlaps and synergies. Therefore, as a first step, and taking into account the current lack of relevant information, Member States should provide the Commission with information on potential strategic stockpiles and, where present, whether they are managed by public authorities or by economic operators on behalf of the States members. Such information should include the strategic stock levels available for each strategic raw material on an aggregate basis, the outlook in terms of strategic stock levels, as well as the rules and procedures applicable to that strategic stock. Any request should be proportionate, take into account the cost and effort required to make the data available, as well as its impact on national security, and should establish appropriate deadlines for providing the requested information. Member States should be able to add information relating to economic operators' strategic stocks to the analysis, although this is not the subject of a request for information. The Commission should manage data securely and publish information only at an aggregate level. As a second step, on the basis of the information acquired, the Commission should develop a draft benchmark for what should be considered a safe level of Union strategic stockpiles, taking into account the total annual Union consumption of the materials strategic firsts in question. Based on a comparison between existing strategic stockpiles and overall strategic stockpile levels of strategic raw materials across the Union, the Board, in agreement with the Commission, should then be able to issue non-binding opinions, addressed to Member States, on how increase convergences and encourage them to build their own strategic stocks. In doing so, the Committee should take into account the need to continue to incentivize the development of strategic stocks by private or public operators using strategic raw materials.

(47) To promote further coordination, the Commission should ensure that the necessary consultations with Member States are carried out prior to their participation in international fora where such strategic stockpiles may be discussed, in particular through the dedicated permanent sub-group of the committee. Similarly, in order to increase complementarity between this Regulation and other horizontal or specific instruments, the Commission should ensure that the information collected and aggregated is transmitted to supervisory or crisis governance mechanisms, such as the advisory group foreseen by the proposal on the Single Market Emergencies Facility, the European Semiconductor Council established by Regulation (EU) 2023/1781 of the European Parliament and of the Council (22), the HERA Council established by Commission Decision 2021/C 393 I/02 ( 23) or the Health Crisis Council established under Council Regulation (EU) 2022/2372 (24).

(48) In order to be sufficiently prepared to address supply disruptions, large companies producing strategic technologies in the Union using strategic raw materials should carry out a risk assessment of their supply chains. This will ensure that these companies take into account the supply risks of strategic raw materials and, where necessary, develop appropriate mitigation strategies to be better prepared in the event of a supply disruption. As part of this risk assessment, such large enterprises should map the origins of their strategic raw materials, analyze factors that could impact their supplies and assess their vulnerabilities to supply disruptions. Where vulnerabilities are identified, affected large enterprises should take steps to mitigate them. This risk assessment should be based on data acquired by companies from their suppliers and, if such data is not available, it should be based, to the extent possible, on data available to the public or published by the Commission. Member States should be able to require a report on that risk assessment to be submitted to the management board of undertakings. To take into account the need to protect trade and business secrets and limit the exposure of companies' vulnerabilities, such a report should not be made public. Such measures should lead to further consideration of the costs of potential supply disruptions, without prescribing specific mitigation strategies.

(49) Many strategic commodity markets are not fully transparent and are concentrated on the supply side, resulting in increased bargaining power for sellers and higher prices for buyers. To help reduce prices for companies established in the Union, the Commission should set up a system capable of aggregating demand from interested buyers. In order to avoid a disproportionate impact on competition in the internal market, the Commission, in consultation with the Board, should carry out a market impact assessment of the scheme for each strategic raw material included in the scheme. When developing such a system, the Commission should take into account the experience gained in similar initiatives, in particular in relation to the joint purchasing of gas established under Council Regulation (EU) 2022/2576 (25). All measures provided for by that mechanism should be compatible with Union competition law.

(50) The provisions on monitoring and strategic stocks included in this Regulation do not lead to the harmonization of national laws and regulations and do not replace existing mechanisms. Incentives for risk monitoring and preparedness should be in line with Union law. Union legislative acts such as the proposed Single Market Emergencies Instrument, aimed at anticipating, mitigating and addressing crises affecting the functioning of the internal market, or Regulation (EU) 2022/2372 could apply to strategic and critical raw materials in the event of a crisis or threat, to the extent that such raw materials fall within the scope of those legislative acts. Complementarity and coherence between this Regulation and Union crisis tools should be ensured by the Commission through the exchange of information between the relevant advisory and governance bodies established by those legislative acts.

(51) Most critical raw materials are metals, which in principle can be recycled infinitely, although sometimes with a deterioration in quality. This represents an opportunity to move towards a truly circular economy in the context of the green transition, while increasing the availability of critical raw materials and thereby helping to ensure security of supply. After an initial phase of rapid growth in demand for critical raw materials for new technologies, in which primary extraction and processing will still constitute the predominant source, recycling should increasingly reduce the need for primary extraction and its associated impacts . This should be done while maintaining a high level of Union recycling capacity through a strong market for critical secondary raw materials. However, recycling rates for most critical raw materials are currently low, as demonstrated by waste streams, such as batteries, electrical and electronic equipment and vehicles, being shipped to third countries for recycling. Recycling systems and technologies are often not suited to the specificities of these raw materials. Innovation plays an important role in reducing the need for critical raw materials, mitigating the risks of supply shortages and contributing to the development of recycling technologies to correctly and safely extract critical raw materials from waste. Timely action is therefore necessary to address the various factors that hinder the realization of the potential offered by circularity.

(52) Member States have important expertise in the field of circularity, for example in waste collection and treatment systems. Such expertise should be used to increase collection and recycling rates of waste streams with high recovery potential of critical raw materials, including e-waste, for example by exploiting financial incentives such as discounts, monetary rewards or deposit-refund schemes, while preserving the integrity of the internal market. In order to increase the use of secondary critical raw materials, differentiated tariffs in relation to producer responsibility could also be included, provided that such tariffs are foreseen by national law, to favor products containing a greater share of secondary critical raw materials recovered from waste recycled in accordance with environmental standards established by Union law. Such critical secondary raw materials recovered from waste should include recovery carried out in accordance with third country rules offering equivalent protection to Union rules. Member State authorities should also make a difference, as buyers of critical raw materials and products containing them, and national research and innovation programs should provide significant resources to improve the state of knowledge and technologies relating to the circularity of materials first criticisms and the efficiency of the materials. Finally, Member States should promote the recovery of critical raw materials from mining waste by improving the availability of information and addressing legal, economic and technical barriers. One possible solution that Member States should consider is the creation of risk-sharing mechanisms between operators and the Member State to promote recovery from closed waste facilities. The Committee should also facilitate the exchange of best practices between Member States on the design and implementation of their national programmes.

(53) In the past, extraction of raw materials was practiced in many regions of the Union and as a result the Union has a significant amount of extractive waste in closed storage facilities which, given the interest that has only recently arisen Due to their economic importance, they have generally not been analyzed from the point of view of their potential as critical raw materials. The recovery of critical raw materials from mining waste facilities has the potential to increase the Union's capacity while creating economic value and jobs in formerly mining regions, often affected by deindustrialisation and currently in decline. The lack of attention to and information about the content of critical raw materials, particularly in relation to closed waste facilities, constitutes a key obstacle to making greater use of the potential of critical raw materials present in mining waste.

(54) The recovery of critical raw materials from mining waste facilities should be part of the process of valorising those facilities. Directive 2006/21/EC sets high requirements for the protection of the environment and human health for the management of waste from the extractive industry. While it is appropriate to maintain these high requirements, additional measures should be established to maximize the recovery of critical raw materials from mining waste.

(55) Operators of mining waste facilities, both existing and new, should carry out a preliminary economic assessment study on the recovery of critical raw materials from the mining waste present on the site and from that which will be generated. In accordance with the waste hierarchy established in Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (26), priority should be given to preventing the generation of waste containing critical raw materials by extracting them from the extracted volume before it turns into waste . In preparing such a study, operators should collect the necessary information, including information on the concentrations and quantities of critical raw materials in the mining waste, and carry out an assessment of multiple options regarding processes, operations or commercial arrangements that could enable economically profitable recovery of critical raw materials. This obligation is in addition to the obligations established by Directive 2006/21/EC and by the national transposition measures and is directly applicable. During its implementation, operators and competent authorities should seek to minimize administrative burdens and integrate procedures to the extent possible.

(56) To address the current lack of information on the critical raw material potential of closed mining waste facilities, Member States should create a database containing all relevant information to promote recovery, in particular the quantities and concentrations of critical raw materials in extraction waste facilities, in accordance with Union competition rules. Information should be made available to the public in a digital and user-friendly format to allow access to more detailed and technical information. To facilitate access to information, Member States should, for example, provide a contact point to enable more in-depth exchanges with potential developers of critical raw material recovery projects. The database should be designed in such a way as to enable potential project promoters to easily identify structures with high potential for economically viable recovery. In order not to waste limited resources, Member States should follow a phased approach in collecting information and carry out the most demanding phases only for the most promising structures. Information collection activities should aim to provide accurate and representative information on mining waste storage facilities and to obtain the best possible indication of the recovery potential of critical raw materials.

(57) A wide variety of products contain permanent magnets: wind turbines and electric vehicles are the most important and fastest growing applications, but also other products, including magnetic resonance imaging devices, industrial robots, light transport vehicles, cold generators, heat pumps, electric motors, industrial electric pumps, automatic washing machines, tumble dryers, microwave ovens, vacuum cleaners and dishwashers contain significant quantities, which are worth recovering. Electric motors should also be included when they are present in other products. Most permanent magnets, especially the highest performance types, contain critical raw materials, such as neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium and terbium, boron, samarium, nickel or cobalt. Recycling them is possible but today in the Union this only happens on a small scale or as part of research projects. Permanent magnets should therefore be a priority product to increase circularity, thereby promoting a secondary market for permanent magnets and ensuring security of supply of critical raw materials.

(58) A prerequisite for effective recycling of permanent magnets is that recyclers have access to the necessary information on the quantity, type and chemical composition of permanent magnets in a product, their placement and the coating, glues and additives used , as well as information on how to safely remove permanent magnets from the product. Furthermore, to economically justify the recycling of permanent magnets, permanent magnets incorporated into products placed on the Union market should, over time, contain an increasing amount of recycled raw materials. While ensuring transparency on recycled content in a first step, a minimum threshold of recycled content should be set following a specific assessment of the appropriate level and possible impacts.

(59) Critical raw materials sold on the Union market are often certified as regards the sustainability of their production and supply chain. Certification can be achieved under a wide range of public and private certification schemes, with varying scope and levels of stringency, which can create confusion regarding the nature and veracity of claims on the relative sustainability of critical raw materials placed on the market. Union market on the basis of that certification. The Commission should be empowered to adopt implementing acts recognizing which certification systems should be considered reliable, providing competent authorities and market participants with a common basis for assessing the sustainability of critical raw materials. Only certification systems that contain provisions for verification and monitoring of compliance by independent third parties should be recognised. Regarding environmental protection, certification systems should cover risks related to, for example, air, water, soil, biodiversity and waste management. Requirements relating to all dimensions of sustainability should ensure a high level of social and environmental protection and should be consistent with Union law or international instruments listed in an Annex. In order to ensure efficient procedures, promoters of projects which require recognition as strategic projects should be able to rely on participation in a recognized certification scheme as relevant evidence to demonstrate that their project is implemented in a sustainable way, contributing in thus leading to a secure and sustainable supply of critical raw materials. When making use of this option, recognized certification systems should cover all dimensions of sustainability. When recognizing such certification schemes, the Commission should take into account the experience gained in the evaluation of certification schemes in the context of other Union legislative acts, in particular as regards the evaluation of similar systems in the context of Regulations (EU) 2017 /821 (27) and (EU) 2023/1542 (28) of the European Parliament and of the Council.

(60) The production of critical raw materials at different stages of the value chain causes environmental impacts, whether on climate, water, soil, fauna or flora. In order to limit such damage and encourage the production of more sustainable critical raw materials, the Commission should be empowered to develop a system for calculating the environmental footprint of critical raw materials, including a verification process, so as to ensure that information relating to that footprint is visible to the public when critical raw materials are placed on the Union market and to facilitate the circularity of critical raw materials. The system should be based on consideration of scientifically valid assessment methods and relevant international standards in the context of life cycle assessment. The obligation to declare the environmental footprint of a critical raw material should only be applied when it has been concluded, on the basis of a specific assessment, that it would contribute to the Union's climate and environmental objectives by facilitating the supply of raw materials criticisms with a lower environmental footprint and would not disproportionately affect trade flows and economic costs. Once the relevant calculation rules have been adopted, the Commission should define performance classes for critical raw materials, thus allowing potential buyers to easily compare the relative environmental footprint of available critical raw materials and shifting the market towards more sustainable critical raw materials. Sellers of critical raw materials should ensure that the environmental footprint declaration is available to their customers. Transparency regarding the relative footprint of critical raw materials placed on the Union market could also enable the adoption of other policies at Union and national level, such as green public procurement incentives or criteria, favoring the production of raw materials criticisms having a lower environmental impact.

(61) The environmental footprint methods set out in Commission Recommendation (EU) 2021/2279 (29) constitute a relevant basis for the development of relevant calculation standards. They are based on scientifically valid assessment methods that take into account international developments and cover environmental impacts, including climate change and impacts related to water, air, soil, resources, land use and toxicity.

(62) The conformity of products or critical raw materials with the requirements for improving the circularity of permanent magnets and with those regarding the declaration of the environmental footprint of critical raw materials should be assessed by the responsible manufacturer before they are placed on the market , and that these requirements are effectively applied by the competent national authorities. The compliance and market surveillance provisions under Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 of the European Parliament and of the Council (30) and Directive 2009/125/EC are designed to address this challenge and should therefore also apply to such prescriptions. The Commission should therefore be empowered to adopt delegated acts to supplement this Regulation in order to ensure that those provisions apply, where appropriate, in the context of this Regulation. To further ensure the optimal use of existing regulatory frameworks, the conformity of products subject to type approval pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2018/858 of the European Parliament and of the Council (31) or Regulation (EU) No. 168/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council (32) is applied through the existing approval system.

(63) The Commission should, in accordance with Article 10(1) of Regulation (EU) No. 1025/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council (33), request one or more European standardization organizations to develop European standards in support of the objectives of this Regulation.

(64) The Union has concluded strategic partnerships on raw materials with third countries in order to implement the 2020 Action Plan on Critical Raw Materials. In order to diversify supply, those efforts should continue. To develop and ensure a coherent framework for the conclusion of future strategic partnerships, Member States and the Commission should, as part of their interaction in the Committee, discuss, inter alia, the achievement of the objectives set by existing partnerships, the choice of priority third countries for new partnerships, the content of those partnerships and their coherence and potential synergies with Member States' bilateral cooperation with the third countries concerned. This should not prejudice the prerogatives of the Council in accordance with the Treaties. The Union should establish mutually beneficial partnerships with emerging markets and developing economies, in line with its Global Gateway strategy, which contribute to the diversification of its raw materials supply chain and bring added value to production in such countries.

(65) Strategic projects in third countries, particularly in the absence of a strategic partnership, can be particularly risky for investors and are often highly dependent on political support in the third country. This problem can be mitigated by increased risk sharing between the companies concerned, acting in the strategic interest of the Union. Support should therefore also be provided to enable companies, including when acting as consortia, without prejudice to the application of Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), to access the markets of third countries which they do not fall under a strategic partnership or free trade agreement. Such support could include the creation of a support network that helps them to establish contacts in the third country concerned and to gather information on local and regional circumstances.

(66) The lack of progress towards the capacity and diversification objectives and benchmarks set out in this Regulation may indicate the need to take additional measures. The Commission should therefore monitor progress towards achieving those objectives and benchmarks.

(67) In order to keep the administrative burden on Member States low, the various reporting obligations should be simplified and the Commission should develop a template enabling Member States to fulfill their reporting obligations on projects, exploration, monitoring or strategic stocks in a single document published periodically, the disclosure of which may be confidential or limited.

(68) In order to ensure reliable and constructive cooperation between competent authorities at Union and national level, all parties involved in the application of this Regulation should respect the confidentiality of information and data obtained in carrying out the their tasks. The Commission and the competent national authorities, their officials, employees and other persons working under the control of those authorities, as well as officials and employees of other authorities of the Member States, should not disclose information acquired or exchanged by them under the this Regulation, where such information is protected by professional secrecy. This obligation should also apply to the committee. Data collated pursuant to this Regulation should be managed and stored in a secure environment.

(69) The power to adopt acts in accordance with Article 290 TFEU should be delegated to the Commission for the purposes of updating the lists of strategic and critical raw materials, establishing benchmarks for the Union's recycling capacity on the basis of strategic raw materials available in waste, adapt the elements and tests to be taken into consideration when assessing compliance with the recognition criteria for strategic projects, establish minimum quotas for neodymium, dysprosium, praseodymium, terbium, boron, samarium, nickel and cobalt recovered from post-consumer waste, which must be present in the permanent magnet incorporated into certain products, establish standards for the calculation and verification of the environmental footprint of different critical raw materials and establish environmental footprint performance classes for the various critical raw materials. It is of particular importance that during its preparatory work the Commission carries out appropriate consultations, including at expert level, in compliance with the principles set out in the Interinstitutional Agreement on Better Law-Making of 13 April 2016 (34). In particular, in order to ensure equal participation in the preparation of delegated acts, the European Parliament and the Council receive all documents at the same time as Member States' experts, and their experts systematically have access to the meetings of the Commission expert groups responsible for preparation of such delegated acts.

(70) In order to ensure uniform conditions for the implementation of this Regulation, implementing powers should be conferred on the Commission to: (a) specify the templates to be used for applications for recognition of strategic projects, reports on the progress of strategic projects, national exploration programs and Member States' reports on exploration, monitoring, strategic stocks and circularity; b) specify which products, components and waste streams must be considered as having significant potential for the recovery of critical raw materials; and c) determine the criteria and their application for the recognition of systems relating to the sustainability of critical raw materials. It is also appropriate that these powers are exercised in accordance with Regulation (EU) No. 182/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council (35).

(71) To ensure compliance with the obligations set out in this Regulation, Member States should provide for sanctions for companies that do not comply with their obligations, including those relating to risk preparedness, project reporting and information on recyclability . It is therefore necessary for Member States to provide in national law for effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions for non-compliance with this Regulation. It is also necessary for Member States to ensure that project promoters have access, where appropriate, to an administrative or judicial remedy in accordance with national law.

(72) The Commission should carry out an evaluation of this Regulation. In accordance with paragraph 22 of the Interinstitutional Agreement on Better Law-Making, the evaluation should be based on the five criteria of efficiency, effectiveness, relevance, coherence and Union added value and should serve as a basis for impact assessments of possible further measures. The Commission should present to the European Parliament, the Council and the European Economic and Social Committee a report on the implementation of this Regulation and on the progress made in terms of achieving its objectives, including as regards capacity and capacity benchmarks. diversification. The report should also, based on the implementation of measures relating to the transparency of the environmental footprint of critical raw materials, assess the appropriateness of establishing maximum environmental footprint thresholds. The Commission should also assess the need for benchmarks for 2040 and 2050 and for individual strategic raw materials, the coherence between this Regulation and Union environmental law, in particular as regards the priority status of strategic projects , the impact of the joint purchasing system established under this Regulation on competition in the internal market and the appropriateness of establishing further measures to increase the collection, sorting and treatment of waste, in particular as regards metal scrap .

(73) To the extent that any measures provided for in this Regulation constitute State aid, the provisions relating to such measures are without prejudice to the application of Articles 107 and 108 TFEU.

(74) Since the objectives of this Regulation, namely to improve the functioning of the internal market by establishing a framework to ensure Union access to a secure, resilient and sustainable supply of critical raw materials, including by promoting efficiency and circularity throughout the value chain, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States but, due to their scale and effects, can be better achieved at Union level, the latter may intervene based on the principle of subsidiarity enshrined in Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union. In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Regulation does not go beyond what is necessary to achieve those objectives.

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