The European Parliament adopted its negotiating mandate on amendments to the Critical Raw Materials Act on Tuesday 20 October 2026. The Parliament press release recorded 470 votes in favour, 83 against and 108 abstentions. EUWID Recycling reported the sitting the next day. The mandate includes a conditional export-control clause that would allow the European Commission to restrict exports of permanent-magnet scrap and waste so that recyclable material remains in the Union. Parliament is now ready to start talks with the member states on the final shape of the law.
The vote does not change the law in force. Regulation (EU) 2024/1252, the Critical Raw Materials Act, has applied since 23 May 2024. The Commission proposed the amendments in December 2025, drawing on the RESourceEU Action Plan. A restriction would take a further Commission act after the co-legislators agree a text. Yards should not rewrite this week's stems on the strength of a mandate.
What the clause would cover
The Parliament press release of 20 October 2026 describes a conditional export-control clause, allowing the Commission to restrict the export of permanent magnet scrap and waste so recyclable material remains within the EU. The stream named is magnets. Ferrous lots, copper wire and aluminium cans remain on the Waste Shipment Regulation file: the 18 September draft list of non-OECD countries that may receive EU metal waste after 21 May 2027. See why the EU wants to limit scrap metal exports and the draft waste-import list.
EUWID recorded a second scrap-relevant line in the same report. Parliament wants intra-EU shipments of waste streams containing critical raw materials to be facilitated, and regulatory and logistical barriers to their aggregation removed. The parliamentary report describes the collection, sorting and recycling of products containing critical raw materials, particularly permanent magnets, as a significant untapped source of secondary strategic raw materials inside the Union.
The same mandate would set up a European critical raw materials centre as a self-standing EU agency, with a Critical Raw Materials Fund of €2 billion under the 2028-2034 long-term budget. The Commission, rather than individual member states, would identify large companies that use critical raw materials in named strategic sectors, including batteries, hydrogen equipment, aircraft, drones, satellites and advanced chips, and would attach resilience obligations to that use. MEPs also want the Commission to open applications for Strategic Projects at least twice a year. Those items matter to processors bidding for CRMA status. The Commission's 9 October list of 46 Strategic Projects, including four Dutch recyclers, is already on this site as CRMA Dutch scrap recycling projects.
Who it affects among yards, traders, mills and processors
Yards that strip electric motors, hard-disk drives, wind-turbine generators or other magnet-bearing assemblies should keep that fraction off the mixed non-ferrous belt. Permanent-magnet scrap is a rare-earth feed. Keep it off a Zorba ticket. If the Commission later uses the clause, third-country offtake for that stream could close while intra-EU aggregation is meant to become easier.
Processors already named as CRMA recycling projects, including the Dutch plants listed on 9 October, are the industrial readers of the intra-EU facilitation line. A magnet lot that used to leave for a non-EU recycler may later have a reason to stay inside the Union. Until the Council agrees a text and the Commission actually proposes a restriction, the offtake that exists today still exists.
Steel mills melting HMS or shredded scrap buy a different book. Rare-earth magnet recycling is a specialist melt. The ferrous export book still turns on the authorised-country list due by 21 November 2026. See OECD and non-OECD scrap shipments. Traders booking mixed non-ferrous for Turkey, India or other third-country melts should keep magnet-bearing fractions on a separate ticket from HMS, shredded steel, Berry or Taldon.
How to name the lot
If the material is permanent-magnet scrap, write that in plain words: the source, whether the magnets are still attached to steel, estimated weight, city or works, and whether the sale is ex-works or delivered. Do not call the parcel Zorba, and do not attach an ISRI code that this site does not use for that stream. If the lot is ordinary ferrous or copper, name the grade the mill already buys and keep magnets off that ticket. State whether the material is waste or claimed as end-of-waste.
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