EU did not offer Ukraine new deal on minerals

The EU has not offered Ukraine a new deal on minerals. Illustrative photo: Eureporter

The European Commission has denied information about an agreement on the use of rare earth materials offered to Ukraine by the European Union, an alternative to the US.

This was stated to journalists by European Commission spokesperson Thomas Rainier, according to «European Truth».

He noted that the EU-Ukraine partnership on minerals has been going on since 2021. According to him, there was no new proposal, he only stressed the commitment to previous agreements.

«There is no proposal. Since 2021, the EU has had an official partnership with Ukraine on critical raw materials, which is formalised in a memorandum of understanding. So this dates back four years. As with all of our partnerships on critical raw materials for the EU, this cooperation aims not only to ensure supply chain security for the EU, but also to contribute to local value creation and capacity building in partner countries, ensuring mutual benefits. Now, as you can see, it's really about cooperation with Ukraine, not about any competition with the US», explained Thomas Rainier.

He added that during the board's visit to Kyiv on 24 February, Executive Vice President Stéphane Sejourne met with his Ukrainian counterparts and reaffirmed Europe's commitment to implementing the memorandum of understanding and accelerating work to strengthen a mutually beneficial partnership.

Earlier, Politico reported that the European Union had offered Ukrainian officials an alternative deal on access to Ukraine's mineral resources amid Kyiv's negotiations on similar cooperation with the United States.