The European Union risks being left on the sidelines of the global scramble for critical minerals as the United States accelerates efforts to secure supplies vital to defence, electric vehicles and other strategic technologies, industry leaders and European officials have warned.
Washington has committed about $40 billion (€34.22 billion) in provisional funding for mineral projects since 2022 and taken equity stakes in key domestic producers, while also pushing American companies to secure mining opportunities abroad.
The US has also stepped up efforts to build alternative supply chains for rare earths and other strategic minerals that are heavily dominated by China.
Europe, meanwhile, has committed about €6 billion to minerals projects this year and designated dozens of strategic projects for faster permitting. But industry executives say the bloc’s approach remains too slow and bureaucratic to compete with the speed of American investment.
“I really admire the Americans because they take an idea and they run with it, while we Europeans hesitate, over-administrate, talk and lose time,” said Bernd Schäfer, chief executive of EIT RawMaterials, which represents the EU critical minerals industry.
The growing gap has raised concerns in Brussels that Europe could replace its dependence on China with dependence on the United States.
Washington is also seeking to rally mineral-rich and allied countries around new supply chains through its Forum on Resource Geostrategic Engagement, or Forge, an initiative aimed at reducing reliance on China. But Trump’s often confrontational approach towards the EU has left some European officials wary of closer cooperation.
One EU official said Europe “cannot be fooled by negotiations” with Washington and should move faster by securing offtake agreements and deploying financial tools to build critical mineral supply chains.
“We are looking at how to work more with like-minded partners — Canada and Japan,” the official said, while leaving the door open to further cooperation with the US.
The contrast is particularly stark in rare earths. Last summer, the Pentagon invested $400 million to acquire a 15 per cent stake in US producer MP Materials, alongside a $150 million loan. It also agreed to a 10-year minimum-price arrangement for neodymium-praseodymium, a rare-earth alloy used in permanent magnets for electric vehicles, robotics and other technologies.
Schäfer warned that such moves could eventually make the US “a second China for Europe” in terms of dependence on rare earth supplies.
“Whether you agree or disagree with the way in which the Trump administration is going about securing their critical raw materials supply chains, in 18 months, they’ve certainly done more deals than Europe has done in the past decade,” a lawyer advising European rare-earth projects said.
Concerns have also emerged over growing US investment in European mineral companies. USA Rare Earth, in which the US government holds a 10 per cent stake, recently acquired British rare-earth producer Less Common Metals and took a 13 per cent stake in French company Carester.
The European Court of Auditors warned in February that the EU’s 75 strategic projects were unlikely to deliver enough results in time to help the bloc meet its 2030 targets for developing domestic mineral supplies.
For European mining executives, the problem goes beyond the pace of investment. Complex permitting procedures and limited public funding continue to hold projects back.
One executive involved in a strategic project described the EU’s efforts as “overall quite disappointing in terms of financial support”, saying strategic-project status may be “good marketing” but is “not a game-changer”.
As Washington and Beijing move aggressively to lock in mineral supplies, Europe faces a growing race against time to turn its critical-minerals strategy into actual mines, processing plants and secure supply chains.
