The European Union (EU) is losing the global race for rare earth metals to the United States and China, and this threatens the bloc’s technological sovereignty, the Financial Times reports.

EU investments in key high-tech sectors are incomparable with the trillions of dollars that China and the US are pouring into this field. And if Brussels does not soon manage to mobilize European countries in this domain, Europe could remain permanently dependent on the US and China.

Europe is falling behind its competitors, while China is strengthening its control over the market by imposing export restrictions on key metals, and the US is reviving its own mining and processing industries. This vulnerability of the EU is particularly evident amid current global conflicts.

In particular, tons of rare earth metals are used to produce high-tech weapons. For example, within a week of their conflict, Iran and Israel had launched around 800 missiles. Each missile contained 2 to 20 kilograms of rare earth metals, which now fall under China’s export control. During the exchange of strikes, between 1.6 to 16 metric tons of such elements may have been used.

Brussels’ attempts to develop a critical raw materials strategy have so far produced no tangible results. Europe, which has prioritized the green transition, is losing to China, which has become a leader in solar and wind energy as well as electric vehicle production. Moreover, the EU has been unable to expand its own production of critical minerals due to resistance from environmental activists, while the US is actively seeking and expanding access to such resources worldwide.