EC on Importance of Minerals Security Partnership Forum

The European Union (EU) and the US have formed the Minerals Security Partnership (MSP) Forum to strengthen cooperation around critical raw materials (CRMs), which are central to global net zero ambitions.

The MSP is a collaboration of 14 countries and the EU to catalyse public and private investment in responsible critical minerals supply chains globally. 

Here, the European Commission's communications team explains what the MSP is, what it does and why it is important. 

What is the Minerals Security Partnership (MSP) Forum

The Minerals Security Partnership (MSP) Forum is a multilateral cooperation platform, bringing together raw materials producing and consuming countries at various stages of development. It focuses on advancing and accelerating individual projects and promoting policies that contribute to resilient value chains and to bringing local value-addition.

Why did the EC partner with the MSP?

A key pillar of our approach to bolstering our Critical Raw Materials (CRMs) supply chains has been working with international partners, which ensures greater efficiency. Teaming up with the MSP is another step towards these objectives, and we have engaged intensively with our US partners on how to maximise the contribution of a CRM Club into the current MSP and improve its structure.

When will the MSP Forum be fully operational?

We are now engaging in outreach to ensure broad participation of resource-rich countries in the Forum. In parallel, we will establish a working level mechanism to implement the objectives of the Forum: to advance projects with Forum members and to prepare the policy actions proposed for the first year.

This includes a workshop on public-private investment in CRMs, focusing on developing a positive, trade friendly local-value addition agenda in resource-rich countries. It also includes an inter-governmental seminar and subsequent government-business forum on ESG compliance, sustainable production and management of CRMs.

We aim at starting substantive working level discussions in the Forum as early as May 2024.

At the same time, MSP activities already on-going focused on advancing and accelerating individual projects will be formalised and expanded. This could include project information sharing for MSP Partners and the Private Sector, presenting CRM opportunities to potential investors, provision of technical assistance in regulatory areas as well as geological survey and mapping assistance.

What will be under discussion with the MSP?

Topics for policy dialogue in the MSP Forum could include:

• Policies to boost sustainable production and local capacities
• Policies to encourage regulatory cooperation to foster fair competition, transparency, predictability, favourable investment climate and local value addition in critical minerals projects.
• Policies on sustainability, including those to promote and facilitate effective recycling

Which minerals will be the focus of the MSP Forum?

The MSP Forum focuses on the minerals and metals supply chains most relevant for clean energy technologies.  These include lithium, cobalt, nickel, manganese, graphite, rare earth elements and copper, as well as germanium and gallium.

Other critical raw materials may come into focus as issues arise, or as activities and projects are agreed.

How will the Forum work with organisations like the OECD, WTO, and G7?

The MSP Forum, through its focus on both project work and policy dialogue, and its constituency of raw materials producing and consuming countries at various stages of development, is a unique contribution to international cooperation towards a secure, sustainable supply of critical raw materials for the green and digital transition. It will complement and interact with relevant international institutions, including the International Energy Agency, the International Renewable Energy Agency, the OECD, the G20, the G7, the Conference on Critical Materials and Minerals, and the United Nations Environment Assembly.

Which countries will be invited to join the MSP Forum?

The MSP Forum is open to countries that are ready to commit to diversifying global critical mineral supply chains and to the MSP's Principles on Responsible Critical Mineral Supply Chains. Initially, the EU and US co-chairs of the Forum, with support from other MSP partners, are reaching out to partners whose participation in the Forum was identified as priority by the MSP members.