BRUSSELS, 7th July 2025 (WAM) – The European Union (EU) plans to stockpile critical minerals as a precaution against potential supply disruptions due to geopolitical tension, the Financial Times reported on Saturday, citing a draft document by the European Commission.
"The EU faces an increasingly complex and deteriorating risk landscape marked by rising geopolitical tensions, including conflict, the mounting impacts of climate change, environmental degradation, and hybrid and cyber threats," the newspaper quoted the draft as saying.
Member states should coordinate backup supplies of food, medicines and even nuclear fuel, the EU executive said.
It would also accelerate work on EU-level stockpiles of items such as cable repair modules “to ensure prompt recovery from energy or optical cable disruptions” and commodities such as rare earths and permanent magnets, which are crucial for energy and defence systems.
In a report commissioned by the EU in October, former Finnish president Sauli Niinisto said that security should be considered a “public good” and called for a preparedness mindset.
On stockpiling, he said that Brussels should “define targets to ensure minimum levels of preparedness in different crisis scenarios, including in the event of an armed aggression or the large-scale disruption of global supply chains”.
The EU in March also advised households to stockpile essential supplies to survive at least 72 hours of crisis.