Have you ever wondered what’s inside your phone or laptop? Beneath the sleek design lies a blend of metals and minerals: cobalt, lithium, rare earths, copper, and nickel. These critical raw materials (CRMs) don’t just power our digital lives; they are also the backbone of the green transition, enabling batteries, wind turbines, solar panels, and electric cars. Yet the way these materials are extracted and traded tells a story that is far from clean.

That reality hit the headlines last month, when Apple’s launch of the iPhone 17 sparked protests in London and other cities in Europe. Campaigners accused the company of benefiting from cobalt mined under exploitative conditions in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which supplies about 70% of the world’s cobalt. Apple is not alone: Tesla, Microsoft, and other tech giants have faced similar scrutiny. Investigations have repeatedly exposed child labour, unsafe working environments, and environmental destruction embedded in these supply chains.

CRMs are, in many ways, the new oil. Without them, there are no smartphones, no electric cars, and no renewable energy systems. They are indispensable to both decarbonisation and digitalisation. Yet Europe produces less than 3% of the CRMs it consumes. Over 90% of lithium and cobalt are imported. Rare earth processing is dominated by China, and nickel by Indonesia. It is clear that this is a question of strategic sovereignty: This concentration creates vulnerabilities in the geopolitical, economic, and ethical dimensions. Europe cannot achieve autonomy in the technologies that will define its future if it remains fundamentally dependent on others for the materials that enable them. For SMEs, it translates into disrupted supply, higher costs, and dependence on global giants. Securing stable access is therefore critical to sustaining innovation and growth, and to preserving Europe’s capacity to act independently on the global stage.

Recognising these risks, the EU has begun to act. The Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA), adopted in 2023, sets ambitious 2030 targets: extract at least 10% of EU demand domestically, process 40% within the EU, recycle 15% annually, and source no more than 65% of any critical raw material (CRM) from a single non-EU country.

At the same time, the EU began developing the Digital Product Passport (DPP) under the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) to enhance transparency and traceability across value chains. By enabling the tracking of a product’s material composition, origin, repairability, and recyclability, the DPP will make circular practices both measurable and enforceable.

This push is further strengthened today with the Circular Economy Act (CEA), which aims to reinforce e-waste collection, recycling, and product design rules while establishing a single market for secondary raw materials through harmonised standards and extended producer responsibility. With Europe generating over 12 million tonnes of e-waste annually, turning waste into a strategic resource could be transformative.

Beyond its domestic agenda, the EU is advancing CRM cooperation through strategic partnerships and political dialogues with countries such as Australia, Canada, Namibia, Norway, the US, and many others. These relationships seek to diversify supply, support joint investment in processing and recycling, and include strong commitments on environmental, social and governance standards.

Europe’s approach is therefore multi-pronged: domestic production, recycling, circular design, transparency, and strategic trade. This is not only about climate goals or industrial policy; it is also about resilience, rights, and sovereignty.

As Mario Draghi argued in his 2024 competitiveness report, decarbonisation offers Europe the chance to reduce import dependency and strengthen autonomy. But the promise of the green and digital transition will only hold if policymakers act with urgency and ambition. The framework is in place. Now comes the hard part: implementation, investment, and accountability. Europe cannot afford to draft ambitious legislation and then wait for markets to solve the problem. The question facing policymakers today is simple: Will Europe control the materials that power its future, or will it remain dependent on others who do?