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Framing Critical Minerals: Hybridising Economic, Environmental, and Security Objectives in EU Trade Discourse
WORKING PAPER 23:
Critical minerals now sit at the centre of EU trade discourse, where global sustainability goals, competitiveness, and supply-chain vulnerabilities intersect. The paper applies discursive institutionalism and introduces “framing hybridisation” to explain how the EU’s narrative evolved through external shocks, agency shifts, and stakeholder engagement. Using co-occurrence analysis and time-series mapping of DG Trade communications (1989–2025), it identifies a three-phase trajectory: an initial economic frame (liberalisation/competitiveness), a subsequent environmental frame (mining practices and the green transition), and, most recently, a security frame (reducing strategic dependencies and strengthening supply-chain resilience). Since 2020, these frames increasingly appear together, signalling a broader shift in EU trade policy under conditions of global uncertainty.
Road to Belém | Seminar Session Critical Minerals: Australia–EU Collaboration for the Green Transition
Wednesday 1st October, 2025 With COP30’s Action Agenda placing “Transitioning Energy, Industry and Transport” at centre stage, secure Australia-to-EU flows of critical minerals are vital to Europe’s net-zero rollout. The EU is deploying its Green Deal Industrial Plan, Net-Zero Industry Act and forthcoming Critical Raw Materials Act to meet surging demand, while Australia seeks to convert geological advantage into low-carbon value chains.
This work is licensed under Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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