The RELiEF project (Horizon Europe GA 101069789), one of the most mature EU-funded projects in the Cluster Hub “Production of raw materials for batteries from European resources”, has published an open-access study evaluating the coherence of recent EU policies shaping the battery value chain.

The study focuses on the EU’s Green Deal Industrial Plan and related legislative pillars, such as:

• the Net-Zero Industry Act: aims for 40% of clean tech needs to be met by EU production by 2030.
• the Critical Raw Materials Act: seeks to secure EU’s supply of critical raw materials (lithium, cobalt).
• the EU Battery Regulation 2023: introduces strict lifecycle rules to promote circularity and sustainability.

Partners from RELiEF project engaged in discussions with various stakeholders across the battery value chain in Europe to understand the sentiment and the level of perception of these regulations. Their methodology circled around two main questions:

• Do these initiatives complement or contradict each other?
• How do stakeholders perceive these regulations and their feasibility?

These two questions revealed more than answers to these questions. While these policies share common goals, the RELiEF study outlines overlapping mandates and regulatory complexity that risk reducing attractiveness for investment and slowing industrial uptake.

These interactions allowed stakeholders  to express additional concerns about skills shortages and social acceptance. Cutting red tape and streamlined permitting remain road blockers for projects both in mining and recycling. Targets such as the NZIA’s 40 % clean tech production and CRMA’s 10 % domestic sourcing were seen as ambitious, while others, like the 15 % recycling goal, were considered feasible and relaxed. The call for more balanced policy objectives and realistic targets was a recurring topic.

The Cluster Hub’s annual workshops and bilateral meetings between projects created opportunities for the ReLIEF partners to engage with a variety of stakeholders in the battery sector. It facilitated collaboration and discussions between EU-funded projects, revealing a shared sentiment about the EU regulatory ecosystem and common barriers that risk slowing EU’s industrial competitiveness.

Read the full study