The EU hopes to establish a rare earth reserve

The EU plans to establish emergency reserves for key minerals, including rare earth metals and cable repair kits. This decision was made in response to growing concerns that the EU is vulnerable to attacks and hybrid threats.

The United Nations News Service quoted the Financial Times of the UK as saying that Brussels has announced the establishment of an emergency reserve of key minerals including rare earth metals, as well as a toolkit for cable repair. Currently, there is growing concern that the EU is vulnerable to attacks.

The European Commission stated in the draft document outlining the reserve strategy: "The EU is confronted with an increasingly complex and deteriorating risk landscape, characterized by escalating geopolitical tensions, including conflicts, intensified climate change impacts, environmental degradation, hybrid threats and cyber threats."

The executive body of the European Union has stated that EU member states should coordinate the storage and supply of food, medicines, and even nuclear fuel.

The publication states: It will also accelerate the EU's stockpiling efforts, such as cable repair modules, "to ensure a rapid recovery in the event of an energy or fiber optic disruption", as well as rare earth metals and permanent magnets, which are crucial commodities for energy and defense systems.

In recent years, several incidents where underwater communication cables and gas pipelines might have been damaged have raised concerns about the vulnerability of critical infrastructure.

This strategy is part of the broader efforts by the EU to enhance security and stability among its 27 member states. Last month, General Carsten Breuer, the Chief of Staff of the German Armed Forces, warned that Russia might attack EU member states within the next four years.

The document states that high-risk environments are caused by "increased activities of hacker activists, cybercriminals and state-sponsored groups".

The EU is also more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change than many other regions, as the rate of global warming is twice the global average. This week, wildfires on the island of Crete forced 5,000 people to evacuate the island.

In a report commissioned by the EU in October, former Finnish President Siroli Niinisto said that security should be regarded as a "public good" and called for preparations to be made.

Regarding reserves, he said that Brussels should "set targets to ensure the minimum level of preparedness in various crisis situations, including in the event of armed aggression or large-scale disruptions to global supply chains."

In March this year, the EU also recommended that households stockpile essential items to cope with at least 72 hours of crisis.

The EU already has a fleet of firefighting aircraft and helicopters in 22 EU countries, a medical evacuation aircraft, as well as field hospitals and key medical supplies, as part of its emergency disaster response efforts.