This article
contributes to the debate on the policy coherence of the trade-environment
nexus by analysing the recent critical raw materials (CRM) policy of the
European Union (EU). Critical raw materials are crucial for the green and
digital transitions but face significant risks in their supply. This raises the
question to what extent the EU can ensure a coherent approach in an era of
geopolitics. The analysis proceeds in three steps: what does coherence mean
(problem definition), how coherent are the EU’s
policy objectives, and how coherent are its policy instruments designed for
CRMs? The article finds that the EU’s
problem definition of the trade-environment nexus has over the past two decades
become more coherent. However, the rise of geopolitics has added foreign policy
considerations to the understanding of this nexus. As the case of CRMs shows,
open strategic autonomy, which aims to reduce strategic dependencies, generates
incoherence among the policy objectives. The many existing or proposed EU
policy instruments can, so far, be assessed as being relatively more coherent
yet also with a mixed record. Future research will have to confirm this
preliminary finding and also address the coherence of the policy implementation
and outcomes of the EU’s CRMs policy.