The EU has put together a list of 47 mineral projects it wants to fast track for permitting in the next 15 months. 

“We do not want to replace our dependence on fossil fuels with dependence on raw materials,” Vice-president responsible for industrial strategy Stéphane Séjourné told reporters in Brussels today. “Chinese lithium will not be tomorrow’s Russian gas.”

https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2025/03/25/chinese-lithium-must-not-become-the-new-russian-gas-says-eu-industry-chief

Easier said than done. In 2023, I visited the site in rural northern Portugal where the EU wanted to open its largest lithium project. It's still not being mined. 

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/portugal-lithium-climate_n_664f8595e4b058247fa206f3

interesting move by the EU, but can they really pull it off? relying less on china sounds great on paper, but these projects always seem to take longer than expected. the whole lithium situation in portugal is a prime example. fingers crossed they can actually get things moving this time around. we don't need another resource dependency crisis!

Reporter and writer. I cover energy, climate change and geopolitics. Contact me via my website www.alexanderckaufman.com and subscribe to kaufman.substack.com.