Recital 16

(16) The Commission should, with the support of the Board, identify Strategic Projects in third countries or in OCTs that are intended to start or expand the extraction, processing or recycling of strategic raw materials, or the production of materials that can substitute strategic raw materials in strategic technologies. To ensure that such Strategic Projects are effectively implemented, they should benefit from improved access to finance, for instance through access to de-risking mechanisms for investment. In order to ensure their added value, projects should be assessed against a set of criteria. Like Strategic Projects in the Union, Strategic Projects in third countries should strengthen the Union’s security of supply for strategic raw materials and should show sufficient technical feasibility. Both Strategic Projects in the Union and Strategic Projects in third countries or in OCTs should comply with the same level of social and environmental sustainability. To become a Strategic Project in an emerging market or developing economy, a project should be mutually beneficial for the Union and the third country involved and add value in that country, taking into account also its consistency with the Union’s common commercial policy. Such value may be derived from a project’s contribution to more than one stage of the value chain as well as from creating through the project wider economic and social benefits, including the creation of employment in line with international standards. Where the Commission assesses those criteria to be fulfilled, it should publish the recognition as a Strategic Project by means of a decision.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-10-13 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.