Horizon Europe EXCEED

🎙️ "Do we really need 293 new mines – or just a new mindset?" Will some of the future #copper, #lithium, #graphite, #rareearth… mines be built in the EU or will Europeans continue to ask the Global South to carry the burden? Bryan Bille of Benchmark Mineral Intelligence joined the RAW MATTERS podcast to unpack China’s dominance, Europe’s execution gap, and the brutal realities of the global critical minerals race. Episode #7 is available from 29 May, 9h (CET). Link below in comment section. 🎙️ “The Great CRM Reality Check: Mining, China, and Europe’s Race Against Time” The global energy transition runs on critical minerals - but the Western world is nowhere near ready. In this explosive episode, Julia Poliscanova (she/her) and Peter Tom Jones sit down with Bryan Bille, Policy & Geopolitical Lead at BMI, to break down the hard truths behind supply, demand, geopolitics, and China’s overwhelming dominance. From BMI’s headline figure of 293 new mines needed by 2030, to Europe’s chronic inability to turn MoUs into real projects, this conversation cuts through the noise and exposes the structural weaknesses shaping the next decade of EVs, #batteries, #magnets and clean‑tech supply chains. We tackle the big questions: 👉 Do we truly need massive new mining - and where? 👉 Are recycling and demand‑side measures enough, or political fantasy? 👉 Why does China still control the upstream, midstream and the pace of the transition? 👉 Can Europe derisk and diversify supply chains, collaborating with the likes of #Kazakhstan & #Uzbekistan, or will the EU miss the metaphorical (CRM synchronization execution) bus for good? 👉 What tools - from CRMA to IAA to real public‑private partnerships - could finally make Europe competitive? If you care about the geopolitics of cleantech, this is an episode you cannot afford to miss. Link to the full episode in the comment section below. 🎙️ RAW MATTERS Episodes 1-6 & 8-12 RAW MATTERS is directed by Stijn van Baarle and recorded in the SOLVOMET R&T Centre facilities. Previous episodes involved: Bart Blanpain (KU Leuven), Adolfo Aiello (The European Steel Association (EUROFER)), Henry Sanderson, Jos Delbeke, Judith Kirton-Darling (industriAll Europe), Albéric Mongrenier (EIES | European Initiative for Energy Security). Upcoming episodes (hosted by Jones & Poliscanova): 👉 Cedric Demonthy (Umicore), 👉 Cecilia Mattea (Initiative for Responsible Mining Assurance (IRMA), 👉 James Watson (European Metals), 👉 Amir Abidov (TMK (Uzbekistan Technological Metals Complex)) 👉 Ann Mettler (Catalyse Europe). RAW MATTERS is available on YouTube, Spotify and Apple. Links in comment section. Horizon Europe LITHOS PROMETIA MateriNex Rare Earth Exchanges™ EIT RawMaterials Kristoffer Lund Salvatore Pinizzotto Amanda van Dyke Roger Atkins Marta Rivera Muñoz Joris Teer David Eades Peter Handley Joris Teer

Europe's Lithium Paradox = Winner at ALMERE International Film Festival! A 7th award/selection for our film on the metal that is essential to meet Europe's climate ambitions! Takeaways below. 🎥 Watch the film here: https://lnkd.in/epg8bhNk 1️⃣ Europe’s push for its green transition depends on CRMs like #lithium. Yet, the extraction of these resources raises profound questions about environmental and cultural preservation, geopolitics, and social justice. In today’s entropic world order there are no simple, perfect solutions. Civil society often grapples with these complex trade-offs. 2️⃣ Europe's lithium paradox needs to be overcome by a smart combination of #demandsidemanagement and ecodesign-for-recycling, #responsiblesourcing from like-minded third countries, maximum (battery) #recycling (not happening yet!) AND some responsible mining in Europe (e.g. first Li mine in EU: Sibanye-Stillwater’s Keliber lithium project lithium project). 3️⃣ Li mining in Europe can only come to fruition if we evolve to a benefit-sharing, community-centric model where local communities become genuine beneficiaries and co-creators of the future rather than passive victims or bystanders. 4️⃣ Europe is losing the global lithium (& CRM) race against China. Europe’s strategy is too slow, too timid and too attached to a rulebook that others have already torn to shreds. It’s time for tangible action rather succumbing to “death by talking”. 5️⃣ Authored documentaries are not journalistic endeavours that just try to inform people; authored documentaries want to change the world. In our case: to help shaping “a less unsustainable future”. The fact that our latest film received 7 awards/nominations from sustainability/environmental film festivals means the world to us. 6️⃣ The films reinforced how critical it is to equip the next generation with nuanced, science-based understanding of sustainability challenges in an increasingly hostile world. In a world of disinformation (even spilling over to scientific media now) this is no mean feat. AWARDS/SELECTIONS 🏆Award winner at Almere International Film Festival 🏆 Best Environment and Climate Film at the Berlin Kiez Film Festival 🏆 Honourable Mention Award at MY NAME IS CLIMATE Film Festival 🏅Official selection as Finalist by British Columbia Environmental Film Festival Society 🏅Official selection for 2025 Big Syn International Film Festival London 🏅Official selection for tve Global Sustainability Films Awards in the Documentary Impact Award category 🏅Official selection for BNP Paribas Green Film Festival 2026 📢 Europe's Lithium Paradox (director: Stijn van Baarle; presenter: Peter Tom Jones) 👍 Funding: Horizon Europe LITHOS, Horizon Europe EXCEED, SIM2 KU Leuven & KU Leuven crowdfunding 🙏TWe look forward to building on these lessons in our ongoing RAW MATTERS podcast, co-hosted by Peter Tom Jones and Julia Poliscanova (she/her). Toni Eerola Alexandre Lima Thomas Gaultier Charles Stuyck Senne Starckx

🎙️ “We feel like Cinderella at the party”, dixit Judith Kirton-Darling, General Secretary for industriAll Europe, when asked why it seems the worker’s perspective is getting drowned out in the Brussels debates about the #CriticalRawMaterialsAct or the Industrial Accelerator Act. Full episode here: https://lnkd.in/eiRV8fUE In this Episode #5 of the RAW MATTERS podcast, the hosts Peter Tom Jones and Julia Poliscanova (she/her) are absolutely delighted to give the floor to one of Europe’s leading trade union voices. Because we urgently need to bring in the worker’s perspective in the Critical Raw Materials and Industrial Policy debates in Brussels and elsewhere. Because #ESG discussions should ALSO cover the worker’s perspective and not ONLY environmental and local communities’ perspectives! 🎙️ Synopsis Hosts Peter Tom Jones (SIM2 KU Leuven) and Julia Poliscanova (T&E) welcome Judith Kirton-Darling, General Secretary of industriAll Europe. Kirton-Darling is widely considered as one of Europe’s leading voices, representing 7 millions of industrial workers. The discussion is triggered by the recent speech of Bart De Wever, the Belgian Prime Minister, who stated:   “Last year I said that Europe must never become an industrial museum. The birthplace of the industrial revolution cannot turn into a beautiful heritage park where visitors admire the prosperity of the past while the future is built elsewhere” (2nd European Industry Summit, Feb 2026, Antwerp).   Kirton-Darling provides some shocking numbers about the on-going industrial decline in Europe (100,000 jobs lost in the EU #steelindustry since 2008; 50,000 jobs lost in the German car industry in 2025 alone). We also zoom in on the problematic worker’s situation in Asian-owned #battery factories in #Hungary and what is needed to rectify these situations. Kirton-Darling is clear about the IAA: “Made in Europe must mean made with quality, made with responsibility, and made with the people of Europe at its heart.” ⁉️ JUDITH KIRTON-DARLING Judith Kirton-Darling is General Secretary of industriAll Europe, representing manufacturing, mining and energy workers from 39 European countries. She was formerly a Labour Member of the European Parliament for the North East of England (2014-20). Before entering parliament, she was active for 15 years within the Labour and trade union movement, notably she was elected Confederal Secretary at the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) in 2011. 👉 MORE INFO ABOUT THE RAW MATTERS PODCAST INCL. LINKS: See comment section below   🙏 william todts Bryan Bille Gareth Hatch Adele R. Amanda van Dyke Ilka von Dalwigk Emily Ritchey Cecilia Mattea Marta Rivera Muñoz James Watson Rolf Kuby Isabelle Van Geet Susana XARÁ Coen de Vos Ruth Lambrechts Lieven Sioen Wim Careel Sophie Grenade Tomas Wyns Senne Starckx WATCH RAW MATTERS EPISODE #5 HERE: