1. The Commission and Member States shall strengthen the different stages of the strategic raw materials value chain through the measures provided for in this Chapter in order to:
(a)
ensure that, by 2030, Union capacities for each strategic raw material have significantly increased so that, overall, Union capacity approaches or reaches the following benchmarks:
(i)
Union extraction capacity is capable of extracting the ores, minerals or concentrates needed to produce at least 10 % of the Union’s annual consumption of strategic raw materials, to the extent possible in light of the Union’s reserves;
(ii)
Union processing capacity, including for all intermediate processing steps, is capable of producing at least 40 % of the Union’s annual consumption of strategic raw materials;
(iii)
Union recycling capacity, including for all intermediate recycling steps, is capable of producing at least 25 % of the Union’s annual consumption of strategic raw materials and is capable of recycling significantly increasing amounts of each strategic raw material from waste;
(b)
diversify the Union’s imports of strategic raw materials with a view to ensuring that, by 2030, the Union’s annual consumption of each strategic raw material at any relevant stage of processing can rely on imports from several third countries or from overseas countries or territories (OCTs) and that no third country accounts for more than 65 % of the Union’s annual consumption of such a strategic raw material.
2. The Commission and Member States shall undertake efforts to incentivise technological progress and resource efficiency in order to moderate the expected increase in Union consumption of critical raw materials below the reference projection referred to in Article 44(1) by means of the relevant measures set out in this Section and in Chapter 5, Section 1.
3. By 1 January 2027, the Commission shall adopt delegated acts in accordance with Article 38 to supplement this Regulation by providing for Union recycling capacity benchmarks expressed as a share of the strategic raw materials available in relevant waste streams.
The delegated acts adopted pursuant to the first subparagraph shall specify the waste streams and the strategic raw materials within them for which sufficient information on the relevant waste volumes and their strategic raw material content is available on the basis of the reporting requirements of Regulation (EU) 2023/1542, Directive 2000/53/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (36), Directive 2008/98/EC and Directive 2012/19/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council (37), to allow for estimating the Union recycling capacity as a share of the strategic raw materials contained in the relevant waste streams.
The delegated acts adopted pursuant to the first subparagraph shall also set a Union recycling capacity benchmark based on the recycling capacity for each strategic raw material in the relevant waste streams identified pursuant to the second subparagraph.
The Commission shall set the recycling capacity benchmark referred to in the third subparagraph on the basis of the following elements:
(a)
current Union recycling capacity expressed as a share of the strategic raw materials available in relevant waste streams;
(b)
the extent to which strategic raw materials can be recovered from those waste streams, taking into account technological and economic feasibility;
(c)
targets set in other Union legal acts relevant to the recovery of strategic raw materials from waste.
The Commission is empowered to adopt delegated act in accordance with Article 38 to amend this Regulation by updating the delegated acts adopted pursuant to the first subparagraph of this paragraph if, as a result of the assessment referred to in Article 48(2), information becomes available on the relevant waste volumes and strategic raw material content of further waste streams.