The European Union is heavily reliant on foreign states for dozens of vital raw materials, including authoritarian and oppressive regimes, a new study has claimed.
The study, which was conducted by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), asserts that the EU is dangerously dependent on resources which are important to modern economies, such as lithium, graphite, cobalt, tungsten, phosphate, silicon, and more.
Deutschland und die EU sind abhängig von importierten Rohstoffen. Viele davon, wie Lithium und Magnesium, kommen aus Ländern, die nicht sonderlich demokratisch sind. Die neue Studie zeigt auf, wie diese Abhängigkeit reduziert werden kann.
Zur Studie: https://t.co/FAHGFtBBLw pic.twitter.com/ljyVgR8hWN
— DIW Berlin (@DIW_Berlin) December 14, 2022
It further warns that many of these imports are purchased from “less democratic” countries, such as China and Russia, which the study warns may pose a risk to the European economy.
Of the 27 “critical” raw materials listed in the paper, 14 of them are sourced 100 per cent from outside the bloc. Another three resources are 95 per cent sourced from abroad.
Many of these materials are vital for the production of modern industry, such as the manufacturing of cars, phones, computers and more.
Even wind turbines rely on these types of minerals.
Notably, the EU sources more than 90 per cent of its magnesium and rare earth minerals from China alone.
Lukas Menkhoff, head of the World Economy department at DIW Berlin, spoke on the implications of the study’s findings.
“This year, Russia showed us drastically how dependence on raw materials can be used by autocratic regimes as a means of political pressure, and what serious economic consequences this dependence has,” he said.
Report author Marius Zeevaert also said that the EU must diversify where it sources such resources to ensure supply in the future.
“We assume that countries that are considered to be particularly undemocratic also tend to be less reliable when it comes to deliveries,” he said.
Zeevaert went on to claim that the continent of Europe already has sources of magnesium and lithium domestically which could be tapped into if mining permits were granted.