Towards a Coherent Trade-Environment Nexus? The EU’s Critical Raw Materials Policy

Abstract

This article contributes to the debate on the policy coherence of the trade-environment nexus by analysing the recent critical raw materials (CRM) policy of the European Union (EU). Critical raw materials are crucial for the green and digital transitions but face significant risks in their supply. This raises the question to what extent the EU can ensure a coherent approach in an era of geopolitics. The analysis proceeds in three steps: what does coherence mean (problem definition), how coherent are the EU’s policy objectives, and how coherent are its policy instruments designed for CRMs? The article finds that the EU’s problem definition of the trade-environment nexus has over the past two decades become more coherent. However, the rise of geopolitics has added foreign policy considerations to the understanding of this nexus. As the case of CRMs shows, open strategic autonomy, which aims to reduce strategic dependencies, generates incoherence among the policy objectives. The many existing or proposed EU policy instruments can, so far, be assessed as being relatively more coherent yet also with a mixed record. Future research will have to confirm this preliminary finding and also address the coherence of the policy implementation and outcomes of the EU’s CRMs policy. critical raw materials, European Union, geopolitics, Green Deal, open strategic autonomy, policy coherence, sustainability, trade-environment nexus, trade policy, twin transition