According to EU Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton, the aim is to achieve a “resilient and sustainable value chain covering extraction, refining, processing, recycling and substitution”.
“For the EU, Rwanda can be an important supplier of tantalum, tin, tungsten, niobium, lithium and rare earths,” explained the municipal executive, who is responsible for agreeing delivery obligations with third parties.
The association “will help ensure the sustainable supply of raw materials,” emphasized the European Commission, which counts the diversification of its suppliers among its priorities.
To date, the EU has signed similar memorandums of understanding with the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, Namibia, Argentina, Canada, Chile, Greenland, Kazakhstan and Ukraine.
The commitment sealed this Monday was signed by the Commissioner for International Associations, Jutta Urpilainen, and the Foreign Minister of Rwanda, Vincent Biruta.
The document covers five areas of work: integrating raw material value chains and supporting economic diversification; Collaboration to achieve sustainable production and utilization; Mobilization of funds to build the necessary infrastructure; Research and innovation and capacity building to enforce relevant standards.
According to the parties, in six months the EU and Rwanda will jointly develop a roadmap with concrete measures to put the agreements into practice.
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