EU Bolsters Collaboration with Kazakhstan Over Crucial Minerals
Kickin' it in Astana: EU and Kazakhstan Assemble the 2025-2026 Roadmap
📸 Credit: Adobe Stock
Buckle up, peeps! Kazakhstan and the European Union have joined forces to draft a gameplan for the upcoming years in the realm of raw materials, batteries, and renewable hydrogen at the inaugural EU-Central Asia Summit in Samarkand on 4th April.
The 2025-2026 roadmap serves to bring more substance to the memorandum of understanding, signed in November 2022, between the EU and Kazakhstan. This strategic pact will be a total blast, advancing the energy sector's future!
The roadmap took off where the 2023-2024 roadmap left off, ramping up actionable areas like boosted cooperation in geological exploration, research, and innovation in the raw materials industry, fostering skill sets, and promoting best practices and Environmental, Social, and Governance standards.
Oh, and here's a fun fact: this roadmap also aims to back joint projects, especially those that have been chosen as strategic ventures under the EU's Critical Raw Materials Act!
Aleška Simkić, EU's Ambassador to Kazakhstan, couldn't be more thrilled about the new roadmap, commenting: "This move demonstrates our solidarity in sustainability and resilience. We're geared up for an all-encompassing approach in our cooperation on critical raw materials—the partnership's already delivering tangible results, proving our commitment to a profitable collaboration!"
The alliance between EU and Kazakhstan isn't stopping there! They're hell-bent on integrating strategic chains in critical raw materials, battery manufacturing, and renewable hydrogen while tapping into the existing Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (EPCA).
So far, the collaboration has been going swimmingly, like the recent signing of a €3 million (US$3.3 million) EU-funded project by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), gearing up EU and Central Asia for critical raw materials sector cooperation!
📝 Fun Fact:- This enriching partnership is based on a Memorandum of Understanding [MoU] signed in November 2022.- The main objectives of the 2025-2026 Roadmap include: - Empowered Collaboration: Strengthening partnerships in geological exploration, research, and innovation across the raw materials value chain. - Education and Training: Rolling out training programs to empower a skilled workforce. - Best Practices and Standards: Encouraging the adoption of environmental, social, and governance standards. - Investment Projects: Supporting strategically identified investment projects, like those under the EU CRM Act, to drive EU-Kazakhstan integration efforts.- This partnership strives to integrate strategic value chains in critical raw materials, battery production, and renewable hydrogen while operating under the Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (EPCA).
- The 2025-2026 roadmap, a continuation of the 2023-2024 plan, aims to integrate strategic value chains in Kazakhstan, focusing on critical raw materials, battery manufacturing, and renewable hydrogen.
- Collaborative projects backed by the roadmap, including those chosen as strategic ventures under the EU's Critical Raw Materials Act, aim to boost the renewable-energy industry and business in Kazakhstan.
- In November 2022, the EU and Kazakhstan signed a Memorandum of Understanding, which will be further strengthened by the actions outlined in the 2025-2026 roadmap.
- The roadmap also focuses on empowering partnerships in geological exploration, research, and innovation across the raw materials value chain, promoting best practices and Environmental, Social, and Governance standards.
- The European Union and Kazakhstan are working together to foster skill sets and education through training programs to create a more sustainable and resilient partnership in the energy sector, with a focus on renewable energy.
