In May, the EU Parliament (EP) overwhelmingly passed regulations requiring the mandatory certification and reporting of conflict minerals throughout the supply chain. Under the proposed regulation, EU importers of tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold would need to be certified by the EU to ensure that they do not fuel conflicts and human rights abuses in conflict areas anywhere in the world.
In addition, all EU companies that use tin, tungsten, tantalum and gold in their products, will be required to conduct costly and cumbersome measures to identify any risks that these metals in their supply chains came from conflict areas. Details regarding your efforts would need to be made public.
What You Can Do
As you know, all politics is local. IPC is currently reaching out to members in the EU to encourage them to contact their country’s representative to the European Council regarding the proposed regulations.
You can help IPC by reaching out to your EU-based suppliers, colleagues, and customers to encourage them to add their voices. IPC has developed a template letter and has translated it into Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Polish and Swedish. Please contact Fern Abrams, IPC Director of Regulatory Affairs and Government Relations at FernAbrams@ipc.org for the file.
