TL; DR
EU trade chief Sefcovic wants a new law forcing companies in sensitive sectors to have at least three suppliers based on the Energy Union.
EU Trade Commissioner Maros Sefcovic made a new challenge”diversification tool“ Reducing Europe’s dependence on single suppliers of chips and rare earths. He made this proposal on Friday at the Brussels Economic Security Forum of the European Policy Center. The instrument will force companies in sensitive sectors to source from at least three different suppliers.
“If it’s a critical supply, you should have three different suppliers to make sure you can’t be penalized for a political reason.” Sefcovic said. He pointed to the Energy Union as his model, an initiative he previously led to wean Europe off Russian energy following the 2014 annexation of Crimea.
The urgency is real. The EU gets more than 90% of its rare earth resources from China. Beijing introduced export controls In rare-earth magnets last October, it stopped shipping chips from China-owned Nexperia after the Dutch government seized control of the company during a tariff dispute with the US.
The breaches have hit European automakers and exposed the bloc’s weakness. “Recent industry events, particularly the supply of chips and rare earths, have reinforced my belief that a step change is necessary,“Shefcovic said.”Every high-risk sector needs to break away from dependence on a single supplier.“
The EU then joined forces with Washington and other countries to find alternative sources. The discovery of Sweden Europe’s largest rare earth deposit has offered a long-lasting glow, but mining times stretch back more than a decade. Meanwhile, Europe remains exposed.
The proposal comes a day after Sefcovic called on Brussels and Beijing to appeal to the EU.unstable” Trade deficit with China Last year, this deficit increased by 18% to 360 billion euros compared to 2024. EU leaders are set to discuss China’s industrial overcapacity and subsidized exports at a summit on June 18-19.
Sefcovic will also meet his Chinese counterpart Wang Ventao in Brussels at the end of this month. He told reporters that the next step is a formal legal proposal. “We need to clarify what we are actually going to do with the legal proposal,” he said.
A wider push reduces dependence on the chip has already drafted the EU Chips Act, which aims to double Europe’s share of global chip production to 20%. A Chips Act 2.0 In June 2026, new measures were proposed by the Commission to further reduce strategic dependencies.
