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European
Minerals Conference
Madrid 2010
The EU Raw
Materials
Initiative: Sustainable
access to resources in Europe
16
- 18 June 2010
Madrid,
Spain
In
June
2010 third European Minerals Conference took place in Madrid to further
support
the Raw Materials Initiative. The “European
Minerals Conference Madrid 2010” was organised by
the extractive industry
representatives both at European and at Spanish level and was included
in the
official conference programme of the EU Spanish Presidency with the
support of
the Spanish Ministry for Industry, Tourism and Commerce.
Euromines
was one of the key collaborators and was represented by its President
Mr.
Thomas Drnek and its director Dr. Corina Hebestreit. The strategic
importance
of the European mining industry and European raw material supply and
demand
were discussed during this two-day conference.
The
Conference, recorded a significant level of participation and a high
level of
speakers and the personalities present. In total more than 350
participants from
over 30 countries attended this event. The final concluding speeches
were given
by the Spanish Minister of Industry, Tourism and Commerce, Miguel
Sebastián,
together with the Vice-President of the European Commission and
Industry and
Entrepreneurship Commissioner, Antonio Tajani.
Mr.
Sebastián and Mr. Tajani were accompanied at the closing
session by Enrique
Guerrero Salom, Member of the European Parliament, by Manuel Hermoso
Villalba,
President of the Spanish Non Energy Extractive Industry Confederation -
COMINROC - and by Jim O´Brien, President of the European
Aggregates Association
– UEPG. The Madrid Raw Materials
Declaration 2010, summarizing the conclusions of the Madrid
Conference and
the views of the European Non Energy Extractive Industry –
NEEI – on the
progress of the EC Raw Materials Initiative was officially presented at
the end
of the conference. The great significance of the raw materials industry
for
Europe was underlined: 30 million jobs and added value of 1,300 billion
euros
are dependent on this industry.
In his
speech, the MEP Enrique Guerrero highlighted the strategic importance
of raw
materials supply for the European Parliament. Commissioner Antonio
Tajani
stressed that the supply of raw materials is a very important objective
for the
European Commission on the future economic development strategy.
Finally,
Miguel Sebastián highlighted that this initiative will allow
the EU to maintain
the competitiveness of its industry.
Madrid
Raw Materials Declaration 2010
The
Industry’s collective viewpoints are described in detail in
its Madrid
Declaration, the key points of which may be summarised as:
- At European
level, a Raw Materials Policy
needs to be promoted, defining the strategy to ensure that Europe in
future will have sufficient supplies of imported raw materials and
sufficient access to indigenous raw materials.
- There is a need to develop
corresponding Raw Materials Policies
at national, regional and local levels to
ensure good present and future access to the raw materials geologically
present.
- There is a need to develop
associated Land-Use Planning Policies,
to ensure that land-use development for minerals extraction around
these geologically-present resources is preferentially treated.
- There is a need to adopt best
practices in Permitting Procedures
following good examples from other Member States, to ensure permits are
granted in a timely and efficient manner and for durations that justify
the significant capital investments involved.
The
Minerals Industry recommends that the Raw Materials Initiative adopts
these
proposals and incorporates them in the final Communication on the
Initiative
expected by end-2010. Because of the ongoing importance of the issue of
access
to raw material resources, the Industry also suggests that the
Initiative be
followed up by regular reviews over the next 5 years and also be part
of the
Commission’s 2020 Agenda and Strategy.
For more
information:
www.madrid2010rmi.com
Download: Madrid Raw Materials
Declaration 2010
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