With this distinction, the two projects can benefit from streamlined and priority processing, thus facilitating administrative procedures and funding applications.
The CRMA establishes clear targets for increasing domestic capacities within the strategic raw material supply chain, while improving access to funding, and ensuring adherence to the highest social and environmental standards. “Strategic projects” identified under the CRMA are those that are deemed to have the the potential to help increase European Union (EU) capacity to extract, process and recycle strategic raw materials and diversify EU supplies from third countries.
The geothermal lithium projects of Vulcan Energy Resources in Germany and Eramet and Électricité de Strasbourg (ÉS) in France have been classified as “strategic projects” by the European Commission under the Critical Raw Materials Act.