CRMA strategic projects: 46 more designations and €21.1 billion in capital needs
On 9 October 2026, the European Commission adopted a new decision recognising 46 projects in 16 Member States as Strategic Projects under the Critical Raw Materials Act. Added to the 47 EU projects selected in March 2025 and the 13 in third countries and Overseas Countries and Territories selected in June 2025, the portfolio now stands at 106, of which 93 are in the EU.
The 46 new CRMA strategic projects are expected to require around €21.1 billion in capital investment, from a combination of public and private sources, but strategic status does not automatically mean that a project receives EU funding.
What CRMA strategic project status confers
Strategic status is a procedural designation. Projects are assessed against the four criteria in Article 6(1) of the CRMA: contribution to security of supply, technical feasibility, sustainable implementation, and cross-border benefits.
What a project gains is administrative. Member States have set up Single Points of Contact to guide promoters through permitting, and the CRMA sets maximum permit-granting periods of 27 months for extraction projects and 15 months for other projects, subject to the conditions in EU and national law. The Commission also facilitates access to EU funding instruments and connects promoters with financial institutions and buyers. Its Raw Materials Mechanism, which aggregates demand and supply, has generated more than 30 matches covering 10 raw materials.
The Commission does not say how many of these matches have led to signed contracts. It is, however, explicit about the limits of the designation. Its Q&A states that designation does not guarantee a project will become operational: promoters must still secure financing, complete permitting, and meet every applicable legal requirement.
Recycling and copper dominate the second list
Of the 46 projects, 19 are recycling, 11 processing, and eight extraction. The remaining eight are integrated: three combine extraction and processing, and five combine processing and recycling. Counting the integrated projects, 24 of the 46 involve recycling. Including the integrated projects, only 11 involve extraction.
The Commission’s press release presents the list through three value chains: batteries, defence and aerospace, and permanent magnets. Counting materials in its published overview gives a different emphasis. Copper appears in 19 projects, more than any battery material, and in six of the eight extraction projects, including Skouries in Greece, Viscaria in Sweden and KGHM’s Retków-Grodziszcze deposit in Poland. Rare earth elements, which the Commission links to the permanent magnet value chain, appear in four.
The 2030 benchmarks: coverage on paper
The CRMA’s 2030 benchmarks are that EU capacity should cover at least 10% of annual consumption of strategic raw materials through extraction, 40% through processing and 25% through recycling. A fourth benchmark aims to ensure that no more than 65% of annual consumption of any strategic raw material, at any relevant stage of processing, comes from a single third country. The Commission states what the full portfolio of 106 projects could achieve against the first three.
Material | Extraction (10%) | Processing (40%) | Recycling (25%) |
Lithium | Fully met | Fully met | Fully met |
Rare earth elements | Fully met | Fully met | Fully met |
Cobalt | Not stated | 89% | Fully met |
Tungsten | Fully met | 57% | Not stated |
Magnesium | Fully met | 51% | Not stated |
Nickel | Fully met | Not stated | Not stated |
Three points follow from the Commission’s own wording. First, every figure is conditional: the projects “could” meet these benchmarks, which assumes all of them reach production, something the Q&A says designation does not guarantee. Second, no coverage figure is given for copper, graphite or manganese, although copper appears in more new projects than any other material. Third, no figure is given for the 65% concentration benchmark, which bears most directly on dependence on a single supplier.
The first list: permits moving, finance still opaque
The 2025 cohort gives the only evidence of what designation delivers. According to the Commission, 25 of the projects selected in 2025 have completed their environmental impact assessment, 17 have obtained a construction permit, and 22 have made significant progress towards offtake agreements.
On finance, the Commission’s Q&A reports that more than €2 billion has been mobilised for the 2025 projects through the Innovation Fund, State aid and the European Investment Bank. These are different forms of support: EU grants, national aid authorised under EU rules, and EIB financing. The total is not broken down by instrument or by project, so it does not show how much is EU grant funding and how much is national aid or repayable finance.
In the Commission’s press release, Executive Vice-President Séjourné said: “We have the resources, the projects and the funding”. A breakdown of the €2 billion, set against the capital requirements of the 2025 cohort, would allow that claim to be assessed.
What to watch
Four developments will show whether the portfolio converts into capacity. The Commission will announce further strategic projects in third countries and Overseas Countries and Territories later this year, and plans a new call for applications towards the end of 2026. It has set up an operational nucleus overseeing the portfolio, as preparatory work for an EU Critical Raw Materials Centre, whose legal mandate, including any role in financing and stockpiling, is still to be defined. And President von der Leyen has announced a European Corporation for Critical Raw Materials to bring public and private investment together.
For promoters, investors and public financiers, the practical reading is that strategic status lowers permitting risk and improves visibility with lenders, but leaves the capital stack to be built project by project. The €21.1 billion attached to the second list is the figure against which the Centre and the Corporation, once their mandates are settled, will be judged.
Organisations considering an application in the Commission’s next call, or assessing projects already on the list, are invited to get in touch.
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