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Role of trade in strengthening the EU's economic security

TA-10-2026-0204 · P10_TA(2026)0204 · PE784.220

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✦ In short · AI summary of this text, generated 4 Sept 2026

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Parliament's resolution on the role of trade in strengthening the EU's economic security welcomes the joint communication of 3 December 2025 and calls for further steps, including an action plan and targets to de-risk supply chains. It urges the Commission to strengthen trade defence, diversify partners and suppliers, and address dependencies in critical raw materials, energy, and technology. It calls for new tools and reforms, including an annual economic security scoreboard, an outbound investment screening framework, and a harmonised EU export control regime. It stresses the need to protect critical infrastructure and sectors, and to integrate economic security into all policies, with Parliament's democratic scrutiny.

Key points

  1. Welcomes the joint communication of 3 December 2025 and calls for an action plan, roadmap, and concrete targets on de-risking supply chains in strategic sectors.
  2. Calls for a whole-of-system approach to economic security, integrating policies across climate, energy, trade, competition, digital, industrial, research, and foreign investment.
  3. Expresses concern about China's market distortions and overcapacity, and calls for stronger trade defence, including higher anti-dumping duties and inclusion of environmental, energy, and labour costs in dumping margin calculations.
  4. Calls for diversification of suppliers and export markets, and for new agile trade and investment partnerships with binding commitments, with Parliament's consent.
  5. Urges ratification of outstanding free trade agreements and highlights strategic importance of agreements with Mercosur, India, Australia, and others.
  6. Calls for measures to reduce dependencies in critical raw materials, including domestic mining, recycling, price floors, and offtake guarantees, and welcomes the RESourceEU initiative.
  7. Calls for an annual economic security scoreboard with measurable indicators, and for an economic security intelligence hub to monitor risks.
  8. Urges the Commission to shorten trade defence investigation timelines and make greater use of threat-of-injury provisions and provisional measures.
  9. Calls for a harmonised EU export control regime and revision of Regulation (EU) 2021/821, and for a consolidated common economic security policy unit.
  10. Calls for an outbound investment screening framework to address risks of critical technology leakage, and for stronger FDI screening with economic security indicators.
  11. Stresses the need to protect critical infrastructure, including energy, transport, and digital, and to restrict use of high-risk vendors with remote monitoring capabilities.
  12. Calls for measures to address dependencies in health, including critical medicines, active pharmaceutical ingredients, and medical devices, and to protect health data infrastructure.

Who is affected

  • EU companies in strategic sectors, including steel, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, renewable energy, and green goods, will face stricter trade defence and potential restrictions.
  • Third-country investors and suppliers, especially in critical technologies and infrastructure, will face enhanced screening and possible restrictions.
  • EU citizens will benefit from measures to protect living standards and public services from external economic shocks.
  • EU institutions, including the Commission and Parliament, will have expanded roles in economic security governance and scrutiny.

Figures and deadlines

  • EU derives more than 20 % of its GDP from external trade.
  • EU single market worth EUR 18 trillion with 450 million consumers.
  • EU depends on China for around 98 % of its rare earths and over 90 % of its magnesium imports.
  • Domestic recycling rates for rare earths remain below 1 %.
  • Over 60 % of global lithium refining capacity and over 85 % of rare earth processing capacity are concentrated in a single third country.
  • Europe accounts for only around 15 % of global hyperscale data centre capacity.
  • 14 Member States have yet to implement restrictions on high-risk suppliers in 5G.