Source: European Parliament
The Commission assesses applications submitted to the call for Strategic Projects under the Critical Raw Materials Act[1] (CRMA) with the help of external experts.
These experts are selected from the Commission’s experts database, established following an open call for expressions of interest. The Commission stresses that the Mina Doade application has been assessed by experts without conflicts of interest.
None of these experts were director of the SAMCA Group or were involved in companies managing the mine’s operations, as this would have clearly constituted a conflict of interest.
Each application is assessed by at least four individual experts whose collective expertise covers technical, financial, and environmental, social and governance-related aspects, as well as the United Nations Framework Classification for Resources.
When allocating experts to applications, the Commission pays particular attention to the impartiality of the involved experts and to avoiding any potential conflicts of interest.
For instance, before receiving access to the application, experts have to confirm in writing the absence of conflicts of interests with the applications allocated to them.
- [1] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:02024R1252-20240503.