In her State of the Union address, Ursula von der Leyen announced a new initiative to facilitate joint procurement and stockpiling of key materials.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wants to expand Europe’s stockpiles of critical raw materials. She announced the plans on Wednesday in her annual State of the Union address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
A new “European Corporation on Critical Raw Materials” is intended to support joint procurement and stockpiling of materials needed for electric vehicles, chips, batteries, clean tech and military technologies, among other applications. The bloc still relies on China for more than 80 percent of its supply of many critical raw materials, and 90 percent for some rare earths, von der Leyen said. Despite progress, Europe must further diversify its supply sources, particularly as other countries are pursuing the same goal.
First Steps Toward Shared Raw Material Stockpiles Already Taken
The plans build on earlier measures to strengthen Europe’s raw material supply. In her 2022 State of the Union address, von der Leyen predicted that lithium and rare earths would soon become “more important than oil and gas” and announced the Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA). The legislation, which entered into force in May 2024, sets targets for 2030 in areas including domestic mining and recycling of certain raw materials. It also provides for initial steps toward shared EU stockpiles of strategic materials, such as closer monitoring of supply chains.
These plans took more concrete shape in late 2025 with the RESourceEU action plan. In April 2026, the EU also launched a joint raw material procurement platform to pool demand from European companies and help secure better prices and more reliable supply terms.
Despite the measures taken and progress made so far, including by companies, securing the EU’s raw material supply remains a challenge, as the European Court of Auditors highlighted in a report earlier this year.
Photo: Yaroslav Danylchenko via Canva
