EPMF welcomes the Clean Industrial Deal

On 26 February, the European Commission published the long-awaited Clean Industrial Deal. As signatories of the Antwerp Declaration in 2024, the EPMF welcomes the Commission’s strategy to decarbonise, reindustrialise and innovate EU industry. 

We see several potential opportunities for the precious metals sector as well as some challenges within the initiatives outlined in the Deal.

Opportunities:

1. The focus on lead markets and green hydrogen is positive for PGMs.  

2. There are several opportunities under the Circular Economy Act including the development of “end of waste” criteria, targeted reciprocal limits on the export of CRM waste, incentives to increase scrap metal use, and increased use of recycled materials.  

3. The Steel and Metals Action Plan has the potential to propose concrete actions to boost the competitiveness of the EU’s metals industries.

Potential Challenges: 

1. While the Chemicals Industry Package is mentioned, the upcoming REACH revision and chemicals management were absent from the text despite being critical for industry. We hope that the Commission plans to ensure consistency between chemicals management and industry. 

On the same day, France Capon and several EPMF members attended the European Industry Summit 2025 in Antwerp to discuss the launch of the Clean Industrial Deal with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.  

We were happy to hear President von der Leyen recognise the importance circularity, and in particular the critical role that metals like zinc and platinum as secondary materials. We agree that Europe can do even more to boost the recycling of precious metals and enabling the free movement of secondary materials and waste.  

We look forward to seeing how the initiatives under the Clean Industrial Deal develop in the coming years and are ready to work with policymakers to ensure that these rules work for the precious metals industry!