By Philip Blenkinsop BRUSSELS, Dec 3 (Reuters) – The European Commission on Wednesday unveiled plans to boost EU resilience to threats like rare earth shortages by strengthening trade measures and adding new economic security tools. The plans mark the culmination of Europe’s slow realisation that it must act fast and across sectors to end years-long […]
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EU aims to improve defences against economic threats, such as China export curbs
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By Philip Blenkinsop
BRUSSELS, Dec 3 (Reuters) – The European Commission on Wednesday unveiled plans to boost EU resilience to threats like rare earth shortages by strengthening trade measures and adding new economic security tools.
The plans mark the culmination of Europe’s slow realisation that it must act fast and across sectors to end years-long dependency on single points of origin for energy or goods. It follows several painful jolts in the form of the COVID pandemic, Russia’s war in Ukraine and the impact of U.S. tariffs.
The EU executive set out what it called an “economic security doctrine” for the 27-nation bloc, which is also contending with Chinese restrictions that have choked supplies of essential rare earths and chips.
The EU wants to remain a global manufacturing leader, but risks falling behind China and the U.S. in technologies like batteries and AI.
The EU agreed on Wednesday to end Russian gas imports by late 2027 and the Commission wants to repeat this success with the REsourceEU Action plan, which aims to speed up the development of its own resources.
EU TO REVIEW SUPPLY CHAINS, INBOUND INVESTMENT RULES
The Commission wants to coordinate more closely with EU members and business to review EU supply chains, rules on inbound investment, its defence and space sectors, and its strength in new technologies and critical infrastructure.
“We want to move from reacting to reshaping our policies,” Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic said.
Sefcovic said the Commission would review by the third quarter of 2026 how to speed up trade measures such as anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties, now applied only after year-long probes.
New measures might be designed to counter unfair trade and market distortions, including overcapacity, to encourage firms in high-risk sectors to have more than one supplier and to set a preference that EU-based companies are used in public tenders for work in strategic sectors.
The EU would also prioritise support for EU businesses that were reducing foreign dependencies in critical sectors or technologies.
Sefcovic said the EU would likely take some lessons from Japan, which responded to China suspending rare earth exports in 2010 over a territorial dispute by diversifying, recycling more, building reserves and forging partnerships.
Commission Vice President Stephane Sejourne said the EU could make some diversification measures mandatory.
“For reasons of economic security, European companies – just like Japanese and U.S. companies, or indeed, Indian – need to stop buying 100% Chinese,” he said.
(Reporting by Philip BlenkinsopAdditional reporting by Julia PayneEditing by Frances Kerry)