Plenary session - OACPS-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly
11 November 2026
Contents updated on 11 Nov 2026
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DELEGATIONS European Parliament
01:30 - 01:49
Speaker 1
Please take your seats, we will start in a minute. Colleagues, please take your seats, we will start in a minute.
06:09 - 06:59
Speaker 3
Please, take your seat. The session is going to start in a second. Honourable colleagues, distinguished guests, dear guest speakers, it's a great honour to chair this plenary debate. Today, we address a subject that lies at the intersection of economic development, climate action, digital transformation, geopolitics, and social justice, critical raw materials and the future of the OACPS-EU partnership. Critical raw materials have become one of the essential building blocks of our economies.
06:59 - 08:28
Speaker 2
Without lithium, cobalt, copper, rare earth and many other minerals, neither the green transition nor the digital transformation is possible. Yet, access to these resources is no longer simply an economic or industrial question. In a world of intensifying geopolitical competition, it has become a matter of strategic importance and security.
Highly concentrated supply chains have also shown how vulnerable our economies can be to disruption. From the European Union's perspective, the response has been the Critical Raw Materials Act, which entered into force in May 2024. It aims to strengthen the EU's capacity to extract, process, and recycle critical raw materials, to diversify supply, and to develop partnerships with the reliable international partners based on higher environmental, social, and governance standards. For the OACPS countries, and for Africa in particular, the stakes are equally high. Africa holds more than 30% of global reserves of critical minerals.
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