Roundtable with participants from EU institutions, political groups, permanent representations to the EU, industry, think tanks and research

With Jakob Hensing – Head of Political Economy, Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi), Berlin

Moderator: Erik Kennes – Senior Research Fellow, Egmont Institute

Europe urgently seeks to strengthen the resilience of its supply with Critical Raw Materials, for which it currently overwhelmingly depends on supply chains controlled by China. Many African governments, in turn, have long aspired to increase revenues and broader economic benefits from their mineral sectors, notably by advancing local beneficiation and downstream industrial linkages. Hoping to tap into complementary interests, the EU and member states have intensified their engagement on the continent over the last years. However, progress in terms of tangible mining and processing projects realized in African countries with European support and integrated into viable value chains outside Chinese control remains very limited to date. Drawing on a new study from the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi), this roundtable elucidates what obstacles efforts are facing and what a more effective cooperation model centered on the delivery and value chain integration of concrete projects should look like.