REEs are the backbone of the green and digital‑technology revolutions, yet Europe relies overwhelmingly on imports, especially from China, for both raw materials and finished magnets. This dependency leaves EU industries exposed to geopolitical shocks, supply bottlenecks, and environmental externalities. Below you will find an overview of what REEs are, where they are mined and processed, the specific vulnerabilities in Europe’s supply chain, and how the new EU‑funded REMHub project plans to close those gaps.
The REE family consists of a collection of unique metals: 15 lanthanides plus yttrium and scandium. They’re not especially rare in the Earth’s crust, but their powerful magnetic, conductive and luminescent properties set them apart. Where common metals fall short, REEs make the difference, often in tiny amounts.
Because of these unique traits, REEs enable technologies we now take for granted:
These elements don’t work alone, but without them, much of today’s clean tech, digital infrastructure and precision healthcare would falter.
REEs begin their journey deep underground, but by the time they spin inside a turbine or steer an electric motor, their path narrows through a series of production bottlenecks. According to the latest USGS Mineral Commodity Summary 2024, global mine output of rare-earth oxides reached approximately 350 kilotonnes in 2023, with China accounting for roughly 70%. The United States, Australia, and Myanmar also contributed, albeit at a much smaller scale, an order of magnitude smaller.
Digging, however, is the easy hurdle to overcome. Once ore is hauled away, it must be cracked, dissolved, and separated into individual elements before alloy or magnet plants can use it. At this chemical chokepoint, China’s grip tightens: it controls more than 90% of global refining capacity, and the International Energy Agency notes that just three nations, together, provide 98% of the output, with China far in the lead.
For Europe, the bottleneck is narrower still. When a factory in the EU orders finished rare-earth magnets, almost every box arrives with a Chinese customs stamp. The European Commission counts 98% of EU demand as satisfied by Chinese imports, leaving clean-tech sectors such as electric vehicles, wind power, and advanced robotics acutely exposed to any disruption along that single, stretched supply chain.
The infographic below summarises some of the most common everyday uses of REEs and where they are generally sourced from.
Europe’s dependence on China for REEs creates a tangle of strategic risks: some immediate, others compounding over time. The vulnerabilities span from geopolitics to environmental standards:
Challenge | Why it matters |
Heavy import dependence | Nearly all REEs used in Europe are sourced from a single supplier. That level of concentration leaves supply chains exposed to sudden shocks and volatile prices. |
No domestic processing | Europe mines almost no REEs and refines even fewer. Concentrates must be shipped abroad, typically to China, for separation and processing, deepening the dependency. |
Geopolitical leverage | China has already shown its willingness to curb exports, notably during the 2010 embargo on Japan. New controls announced for 2025 on medium-to-heavy REEs signal that supply flows can be turned off without warning. |
Environmental offshoring | Extracting REEs from ionic clay or hard rock produces toxic and radioactive waste. Much of this environmental burden is carried by countries with looser regulations, far from EU oversight. |
Soaring demand ahead | The International Energy Agency projects a three-to-sevenfold increase in demand for magnet REEs by 2040, driven by clean-energy technologies. |
Mismatch with EU strategic goals | The EU’s 2024 Critical Raw Materials Act aims to ensure that no single non-EU country provides more than 65% of any strategic raw material by 2030. For REEs, Europe remains nowhere near that benchmark. |
To reduce its dependency and secure access to rare-earth elements well into the future, Europe is backing a new strategic initiative: REMHub, the EU-funded Rare Earth and Magnets Hub. Over the next 48 months, this Horizon Europe project will build a digital, EU-wide platform to accelerate innovation across the entire rare-earth value chain, from sourcing to recycling.
Led by a consortium of 24 partners across six countries, REMHub brings together academic research, industrial experience, and the agility of SMEs. The goal: to develop and pilot circular technologies—Re‑X methods such as recycling, reuse, refurbishment, and repurposing—while advancing greener mining and separation techniques. At its core is a shared digital infrastructure: a cloud-based platform for data exchange, traceability, and magnet “passports” that follow materials from mine to motor.
The infographic below provides an overview of the REMHub project.
