EU Conflict Minerals Update
A mandatory certification process for Conflict Minerals in the European Union is critical. Any voluntary certification that is put in place leads to a grey area for compliance reporting, and the regulation will not serve its purpose. The EU Council has laid out a comprehensive approach to mandatory reporting, and negotiations are currently taking place to better understand the implementation steps behind the, “Dutch Approach.”
The Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) in the European Union recently reported that the EU is importing about 25% of mined Conflict Minerals and is the 3rd largest direct importer of laptops and smartphones. S&D continued to give stipulations of the companies in scope: “Importers of minerals, importers of metals, traders, manufacturers, and retailers of products consisting of or containing 3TG’s.”
A strong, mandatory reporting process with a well defined scope will yield strong results and truly make a large scale impact on mining Conflict Minerals. If you are interested in learning more about the EU Conflict Minerals pending regulation, click here. If you are interested in learning more about how to stay ahead of the regulation, click here.
