Key Takeaways
- Canada and the European Union have rarely been more aligned on critical minerals, but after years of memorandums of understanding and strategies, participants were clear that the time for talking has passed.
- Without a buyer there is no project, and critical minerals are still often bought on short-term price rather than treated as a longer-term investment in secure, strategic supply.
- The policy and finance tools are arriving, but there’s no clear method yet to put them to work.
Executive Summary
Critical minerals have been identified as a core area of collaboration between Canada and the European Union as they progress towards a Canada–EU Summit hosted in Montreal October 29–30, 2026. To ensure conversations can proceed beyond memorandums of understanding to addressing the concrete issues on the ground, Clean Energy Canada and Crestview Strategy co-hosted a closed-door roundtable of key industry leaders and experts on October 1, 2026, to provide tangible recommendations to inform the upcoming Summit.
Held in Toronto and online under the Chatham House Rule, the roundtable brought together Canadian and European government officials, financiers, mining companies, and offtakers to identify actions needed to accelerate Canada–EU critical minerals trade. The event built on Clean Energy Canada’s recent report, A Critical Moment, which spotlights supply chains for six key critical minerals and maps out some of the highest-potential opportunities to deepen Canada–EU supply chain integration.
Clean Energy Canada has synthesized the discussion into a set of near-term and longer-term recommendations to inform the upcoming Canada-EU Summit.
