The debate as well as the Act emphasize the need to ensure the security of EU investments in these materials. However, hardly anything has been said about the role that the main legal instrument for the protection of foreign investment can serve in this regard: investment treaties. EU member states have more than 1 100 bilateral treaties with third countries. These treaties can, depending on design, protect investments between partner countries against virtually any type of host country measure that has detrimental effects on the profitability of the EU investments.
The purpose of this project is to examine the extent to which the EU member state investment treaties can serve geoeconomic objectives for the EU by protecting EU investments in reserves of the five minerals that are considered critical to electric vehicle production: cobalt, lithium, manganese, natural graphite, and nickel. These minerals are also of central importance to the defense industry. The project aims, in particular, to compare the treaty protection for EU investments with investments from the strategic competitors to the EU, China and the US. By considering investments in mineral reserves, the project takes a longer-term perspective on this competition than what is normally done in the policy debate, where the focus is mostly on countries’ current production and consumption levels.
Investment Treaty Protection of EU Investment in Electric Vehicle Minerals Reserves
There has recently been much discussion about the need for the EU to ensure access to critical raw materials, and in 2024, the EU introduced its Critical Raw Materials Act with this aim.
Project manager