Strategic reset: Re-designing EU-Africa partnerships on critical minerals

The EU has set on a course of diversification from its main provider of critical minerals and several of its manufactured products, China. To secure access, enhance European industrial resilience, and advance the green transition, the EU has signed strategic partnerships with resource-rich African countries, namely Namibia, the DRC, Zambia, and Rwanda, along with a multistakeholder initiative, the Lobito Corridor project. However, limited progress and ongoing challenges call for a reassessment of strategies to achieve more impactful outcomes.

This roundtable will discuss structural challenges facing Europe’s positioning in mineral value chains and Africa’s limitations in attracting significant market interest in its mines, providing a safe space for frank discussion with the aim of identifying practical steps and priorities for the operationalisation of effective engagements.