The debate around Europe’s battery supply chains was intense at MINEX Europe 2025 Conference session on lithium and battery supply chains in Europe, I moderated. The discussion brought together a wide range of perspectives, highlighting both the scale of Europe’s progress and the urgency of its next steps. Against that backdrop, here are some reflections on Europe’s industrial path.
The missing middle
Europe’s position in the global battery economy will depend on how effectively it develops the stages between extraction and manufacturing. Competitiveness will rely less on resource access and more on organisational coherence across the system linking policy, capital, and production.
Refining and precursor production sit at the centre of industrial capability, yet these midstream capacities – the “missing middle” are still emerging across much of the continent. The next task is depth which involves building domestic refining and precursor capacity to match manufacturing scale. Without this balance, Europe risks a manufacturing base increasingly dependent on imported processed materials, which would constrain resilience and flexibility.
The policy-to-delivery dilemma
The Critical Raw Materials Act and the Batteries Regulation provide a strong regulatory base, but Europe faces a persistent policy-to-delivery dilemma. Permitting remains lengthy, frameworks differ across member states, and early-stage projects still struggle to secure commercial-scale capital. Converting legislative ambition into industrial capability will test Europe’s institutional maturity. Success depends on whether regulation can evolve into execution with the pace required by global competition.
The missing operating model
Europe’s next challenge is to connect its strengths into a functioning system. Alignment between regulation, finance, technology, and permitting is needed to build a coordinated industrial architecture. The way Europe manages lithium and battery materials will demonstrate whether it can achieve that coherence across its broader industrial base.
Partnership and circularity
Partnership as architecture is essential to correcting current imbalances. Building reliable supply relationships with countries such as Canada and Australia, while supporting responsible development in Africa, can extend Europe’s industrial system through shared standards and transparency.
Recycling reframed as industrial strategy offers a complementary path to resilience. By embedding circularity within production, Europe can turn process scrap and end-of-life materials into domestic feedstock, reinforcing the supply chain from within.
The test of industrial coherence
Europe’s effort to re-engineer the foundations of its industrial economy will define its place in the global battery sector. Its credibility will depend on turning precision in policy into precision in production, the defining measure of industrial coherence at scale.
