Editor’s Note
This article outlines the EU’s newly approved binding regulations on “conflict minerals,” requiring importers to ensure their supply chains do not fund armed conflicts.
The European Parliament gave its final approval on Thursday to a new regulation aimed at better controlling the import of certain minerals essential to industry, in order to avoid contributing to the financing of armed conflicts in Africa.
This regulation on “conflict minerals,” which will come into force in January 2021, will be binding for EU importing companies at the beginning of the production chain, including smelters and refineries.
According to the text, negotiated over three years between the Commission, member states, and Parliament under strong pressure from industry lobbies, they will have to ensure and guarantee that there is no link between their supply chain and armed conflicts.
However, companies importing small volumes will be exempt, a point regretted by some NGOs.
lamented Michael Gibb of the NGO Global Witness, which fights against the plundering of natural resources and the violence they cause against civilians in poor countries.
French Green MEP Yannick Jadot regretted another “loophole,” which exempts the vast majority of downstream companies manufacturing final consumer products, such as tablets or smartphones. The targeted minerals, namely tungsten, tin, tantalum, and gold, are indeed essential for the production of everyday objects like mobile phones, computers, refrigerators, and light bulbs.
They are mainly imported from Africa, particularly from the south and east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), in the Great Lakes region, where armed groups are fighting for control of mines.
additionally accused Belgian Socialist MEP Marie Arena.
This new regulation is inspired by a clause in the US law on financial system reform, adopted in 2010 under the presidency of Barack Obama, which forced US companies to be more transparent about their exploitation of such minerals.
However, the new US President Donald Trump announced in February a review of this legislation.
commented European Commissioner for Trade, Sweden’s Cecilia Malmström, during the debate in Strasbourg. This “further underscores the importance of European leadership on this issue,” she argued.