The European Commission’s 2023 proposal for a Regulation on critical raw materials (COM(2023) 160 final) sets out a strategic list of raw materials vital to the EU’s green transition, digital economy, and defence capabilities. As detailed in Annex I, these include battery-grade lithium, cobalt, nickel, manganese, and natural graphite; high-purity metals such as bismuth, magnesium, titanium, and tungsten; and key inputs like gallium, germanium, and silicon metal. The list also features copper, boron (metallurgy grade), platinum group metals, and rare earth elements used in permanent magnets, namely neodymium, praseodymium, terbium, dysprosium, gadolinium, samarium, and cerium. These materials are considered essential to securing the EU’s industrial resilience and reducing strategic dependencies.

Annex II of the European Commission’s 2023 proposal for a Regulation on critical raw materials (COM(2023) 160 final) sets out the official list of materials designated as critical to the EU’s economic resilience, clean energy transition, and strategic autonomy. These raw materials are deemed essential based on their high economic importance and significant supply risk. The list encompasses a comprehensive range of elements and compounds, including antimony, cobalt, natural graphite, rare earth elements (both light and heavy), lithium, and battery-grade nickel, alongside industrial minerals such as bauxite, fluorspar, and phosphate rock. It also includes strategic metals such as tungsten, vanadium, tantalum, and the platinum group metals.

While the spotlight often falls on high-profile materials like lithium and rare earths, the 2023 critical raw materials list equally prioritises several lesser-publicised but strategically indispensable inputs. These materials may not appear directly in final products, but they are fundamental to upstream value chains across clean energy, advanced manufacturing, defence, and agri-tech. Their designation reflects the EU’s systemic understanding of supply chain risk: strategic exposure often originates not at the end-use stage, but in the unheralded building blocks of industrial capacity. The following materials exemplify this logic.

Bauxite is the principal ore of aluminium, a metal central to decarbonised manufacturing, renewable infrastructure, and strategic sectors such as aerospace and defence. While aluminium itself is absent from the list, bauxite’s inclusion underscores its upstream significance and the EU’s exposure to import reliance and energy-intensive refining processes that threaten value chain stability.

The dual listing of phosphate rock and phosphorus signals a deliberate effort to secure both the raw mineral and its processed derivatives. Phosphate rock underpins global fertiliser systems, while phosphorus is increasingly integral to lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries, chemicals, and flame retardants. The EU’s high import dependency, often from politically volatile sources, amplifies the urgency of securing these foundational inputs.

Despite its association with fossil fuels, coking coal, also known as metallurgical coal, is included in the EU’s critical raw materials list due to its irreplaceable role in conventional steelmaking. Used to produce metallurgical coke for blast furnaces, coking coal remains essential for high-strength steel products required in construction, automotive, and defence sectors. While green steel technologies are emerging, scalable alternatives are not yet widely deployed, making coking coal a transitional necessity for industrial competitiveness and infrastructure development.

Fluorspar is the principal source of hydrofluoric acid, a precursor to fluorochemicals critical for semiconductors, batteries, refrigerants, and aluminium production. The EU’s domestic capacity is limited, while China controls a dominant share of global supply, creating a structural dependency in multiple high-tech and clean energy value chains.

Though abundant, Feldspar plays a critical role in producing specialised ceramics, glass, and electronic components. Its inclusion reflects supply concerns around high-purity grades and the EU’s underdeveloped processing infrastructure, factors that can disrupt production in key downstream sectors.