EU urged to reinforce DRC’s conflict minerals regulations

The European Union has been urged to clamp down on illegal imports of conflict minerals from the DRC after evidence was found that current regulations had been breached, reports The Guardian. The European bloc has adopted legislation to prevent armed groups benefiting from the trade of tin, tungsten, tantalum and gold, which are used in electronics and to manufacture clean-energy technologies. The EU’s Conflict Minerals Regulation came into full force in 2021, imposing due-diligence checks on companies importing the minerals from conflict-affected countries. Member states are responsible for enforcing checks and imposing sanctions if rules are violated. But in a recent review, the EU Commission admitted that an external study had found ‘limited impacts among local stakeholders’. It also found ‘delays’ and ‘implementation challenges’. Advocacy group Global Witness said there remained a ‘high risk’ of the EU’s mineral imports being used to fund militias and state repression in several countries. The organisation urged the EU to step up enforcement of the law, improve the transparency of imports and impose sanctions on firms that failed to comply. Last month, the DRC Government filed a criminal complaint against Apple in France and Belgium, accusing the company of using conflict minerals laundered through international supply chains. Apple rejected the allegations and said it had told suppliers to stop sourcing these minerals from DRC and Rwanda.

Full report in The Guardian