18 Amendments of Stanislav POLČÁK related to 2023/0079(COD)
Amendment 4 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 1
Recital 1
(1) Access to raw materials is essential for the Union economy and the functioning of the internal market. There is a set of non-energy, non-agricultural raw materials that, due to their high economic importance and their exposure to high supply risk, often caused by a high concentration of supply from a few third countries, often with authoritarian and/or unstable regimes, are considered critical. Given the key role of many such critical raw materials in realising the green and digital transitions, and in light of their use for defence and space applications, demand will increase exponentially in the coming decades. At the same time, the risk of supply disruptions is increasing against the background of rising geopolitical tensions and resource competition. Furthermore, if not managed properly, increased demand for critical raw materials could lead to negative environmental and social impacts. Considering these trends, it is necessary to take measures to ensure access to a secure and sustainable supply of critical raw materials to safeguard the Union's economic resilience and open strategic autonomy.
Amendment 55 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 11
Recital 11
(11) In order to ensure the sustainability of increased raw material production, new raw materials projects should be implemented sustainably. To that end, the Strategic Projects receiving support under this Regulation should be assessed taking into account international instruments covering all aspects of sustainability highlighted in the EU principles for sustainable raw materials31[1], including ensuring environmental protection, socially responsible practices, including respect for human rights such as the rights of women and vulnerable groups, and transparent business practices. Projects should also ensure engagement in good faith as well as comprehensive and meaningful consultations with local communities, including with indigenous peoples. To provide project promoters with a clear and efficient way of complying with this criterion, compliance with relevant Union legislation, international standards, guidelines and principles or participation in a certification scheme recognised under this Regulation should be considered sufficient. _________________ 31[1] European Commission, Directorate- General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, EU principles for sustainable raw materials, Publications Office, 2021, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2873/27875
Amendment 85 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 24
Recital 24
(24) The environmental assessments and authorisations required under Union law, including in relation to water, habitats and birds, are an integral part of the permit granting process for a raw material project and an essential safeguard to ensure that negative environmental impacts are prevented or minimised to the greatest extent possible. However, in order to ensure that the permit granting processes for Strategic Projects are predictable and timely, any potential to streamline the required assessments and authorisations while not lowering the level of environmental protection should be realised. In that regard, it should be ensured that the necessary assessment are bundled to prevent unnecessary overlap and it should be ensured that project promoters and responsible authorities explicitly agree on the scope of the bundled assessment before it is implemented to prevent unnecessary follow-up.
Amendment 119 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 43
Recital 43
(43) The Union has, in many of its regions, a legacy of raw materials extraction and thus substantial amounts of extractive waste on closed facilities which, due to their only recent rise in economic importance, have generally not been analysed for critical raw materials potential. The recovery of critical raw materials from extractive waste facilities has the potential to create economic value and employment in historical mining regions, which are often affected by deindustrialisation and decline, while at the same time, in many cases, through the use of appropriate technologies, it can contribute to addressing historic environmental burdens from prior mining operations. The lack of attention to, and information on critical raw materials content, especially on closed waste facilities, constitutes a key barrier to greater use of the critical raw materials potential of extractive waste.
Amendment 133 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 50
Recital 50
(50) The production of critical raw materials at different stages of the value chain causes environmental impacts, whether on climate, water, fauna or flora. In order to limit such damage and incentivise the production of more sustainable critical raw materials, the Commission should be empowered to develop a system for the calculation of the environmental footprint of critical raw materials, including a verification process, to ensure that critical raw materials placed on the Union market publicly display information on such footprint. The system should be based on taking into account scientifically sound assessment methods and relevant international standards in the area of life cycle assessment. The requirement to declare the environmental footprint of a material should only apply where it has been concluded, based on a dedicated assessment, that it would contribute to the Union’s climate and environmental objectives by facilitating the procurement of critical raw materials with lower environmental footprint and would not disproportionately affect trade flows. When the relevant calculation methods have been adopted, the Commission should develop performance classes for critical raw materials, thereby allowing potential buyers to easily compare the relative environmental footprint of available materials and driving the market towards more sustainable materials. Sellers of critical raw materials should ensure that the environmental footprint declaration is available to their customers. Transparency on the relativeenvironmental footprint of critical raw materials placed on the Union market may also enable other policies at Union and national level, such as incentives or green public procurement criteria, fostering the production of critical raw materials with lower environmental impacts.
Amendment 139 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 54
Recital 54
(54) The Union has concluded Strategic Partnerships covering raw materials with third countries in order to implement the 2020 Action Plan on Critical Raw Materials. In order to diversify supply, these efforts should continue. To develop and ensure a coherent framework for the conclusion of future partnerships, the Member States and the Commission should, as part of their interaction on the Board, discuss and ensure coordination on, inter alia, whether existing partnerships achieve the intended aims, the prioritisation of third countries for new partnerships, the content of such partnerships and their coherence and potential synergies between Member States' bilateral cooperation with relevant third countries. The Union should seek mutually beneficial partnerships with emerging market and developing economies, in coherence with its Global Gateway strategy, which contribute to the diversification of its raw materials supply chain as well as add value in the production in these countries. At the same time, given its position as a global leader in combating and mitigating climate change, the Union should take into account, to the maximum extent possible, the environmental impacts of the extraction of critical raw materials in the third country concerned in the framework of these strategic partnerships and seek to minimise these impacts from a position of influence.
Amendment 144 #
Proposal for a regulation
Recital 56
Recital 56
(56) The absence of progress towards the objectives, including the capacity and diversification benchmarks, may indicate the need for adopting additional measures. The Commission should therefore continuously monitor the progress attained towards those objectives.
Amendment 168 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 1 – paragraph 2 – point b
Article 1 – paragraph 2 – point b
(b) diversify the Union's imports of strategic raw materials with a view to ensure that, by 2030, the Union's annual consumption of each strategic raw material at any relevant stage of processing can rely on imports from several third countries, none of which provide more than 65% of the Union's annual consumption, while at the same time, where possible and economically sustainable, Member States and the Union should give preference to supplies from countries with stable and democratic regimes;
Amendment 187 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 8
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 8
(8) ‘reserves’ means all mineral occurrences that are economically viable to extract when all relevant externalities are taken into account;
Amendment 201 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 5 – paragraph 1 – introductory part
Article 5 – paragraph 1 – introductory part
1. Following an application of the project promoter and in accordance with the procedure established in Article 6, the Commission shall recognise as Strategic Projects raw material projects that meet all of the following criteria:
Amendment 238 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 6 – paragraph 1 – point d
Article 6 – paragraph 1 – point d
(d) a plan containing measures to facilitate public acceptance including, where appropriate, the establishment of recurrent communication channels and other tools for transparent dialogue with the local communities and organisations, including social partners, the implementation of awareness-raising and information campaigns and the establishment of mitigation and compensation mechanisms for any negative impacts the project may have;
Amendment 379 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 17 – paragraph 1 – introductory part
Article 17 – paragraph 1 – introductory part
Member States shall provide the following information on administrative processes relevant to critical raw material projects online, and in a centralised, user-friendly and easily accessible manner:
Amendment 634 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 30 – paragraph 1
Article 30 – paragraph 1
1. The Commission is empowered to adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 36 to supplement this Regulation by establishing rules for the calculation and verification of the environmental footprint of different critical raw materials, in accordance with Annex V and taking into account scientifically sound assessment methods and relevant international standards. The calculation and verification rules shall identify which is the most important impact categorympact categories are important. The footprint declaration shall be limited to thatose impact categoryies.
Amendment 641 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 30 – paragraph 2
Article 30 – paragraph 2
2. The Commission mayshall adopt calculation and verification rules for a specific critical raw material if it has concluded, having considered the various relevant environmental impact categories, that the critical raw material in question has a significantmore than minor environmental footprint and that therefore an obligation to declare the environmental footprint of that material regarding the most important impact categoryies, when placing it on the market, is necessary and proportionate to contribute to the Union’s climate and environmental objectives by facilitating the supply of critical raw materials with lower environmental footprint.
Amendment 659 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 30 – paragraph 4 – point b
Article 30 – paragraph 4 – point b
(b) ensure that any such measure is not prepared, adopted or applied with a view to or with the effect of creating unnecessary obstacles to international trade and is no more trade- restrictive than necessary to achieve the Union’s climate and environmental objectives, having regard to the ability of third-country suppliers to comply with such a declaration such that aggregate trade flows and critical raw materials costs are not disproportionately affected;
Amendment 663 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 30 – paragraph 4 – point c
Article 30 – paragraph 4 – point c
(c) assess whether the measure would contribute to achieving the Union’s climate and environmental objectives without disproportionately impactingimpacting, in a manner disproportionate to the progress made in the climate and environmental field, the ability of Union industry to source the critical raw material in question.
Amendment 683 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 33 – paragraph 1 – point c – point ii
Article 33 – paragraph 1 – point c – point ii
(ii) whether a third country's regulatory framework and its overall legal environment ensures the monitoring, prevention and minimisation of environmental impacts, the use of socially responsible practices including respect of human and labour rights and meaningful engagement with local communities, the use of transparent business practices and the prevention of adverse impacts on the proper functioning of public administration and the rule of law;
Amendment 686 #
Proposal for a regulation
Article 33 – paragraph 1 – point c – point iv a (new)
Article 33 – paragraph 1 – point c – point iv a (new)
(iv a) whether the third country in question is politically stable, with democratic processes in place and functioning in practice, or whether, on the contrary, it is an authoritarian regime whose values are incompatible with those of the Union and its Member States.