On 10 March Cerame-Unie attended the BUSINESSEUROPE Taskforce on Conflict Minerals and exchanged with representatives of the European Commission’s DG Trade on the latest developments in the legislative process for a Union system for responsible sourcing of minerals.

Trialogue negotiations – between the European Commission (EC), the Council and the European Parliament (EP) – started in early February following a difficult adoption of the Council mandate by the EU Member States. While the EC put together a proposal for a compromise, the main points of divergence between the Council and EP include the geographical scope of the regulation and its mandatory nature for “up-stream” and “down-stream” supply chain companies.

Following a testing period, further trialogue discussions will take place on 5 April.