The recently published Critical Raw Materials Act as a regulation of the European Union fails to safeguard the land rights of Sami Reindeer Herders since it does not provide for enforcing mechanisms to ensure their participation as stakeholders within the negotiation of permit concession for new mining projects. The Critical Raw Materials Act pushes for a significant reduction in the period for permit obtention to initiate new mining projects when these are considered strategic. This regulation is ...
The recently published Critical Raw Materials Act as a regulation of the European Union fails to safeguard the land rights of Sami Reindeer Herders since it does not provide for enforcing mechanisms to ensure their participation as stakeholders within the negotiation of permit concession for new mining projects. The Critical Raw Materials Act pushes for a significant reduction in the period for permit obtention to initiate new mining projects when these are considered strategic. This regulation is part of the European Green Deal linked to the Twin Transitions (green and digital) towards a more sustainable European Union. These Twin Transitions require the securitisation and increased availability of certain materials labelled as Critical Raw Materials; thus, the regulation aims to increase the domestic extraction and processing of these materials. The competition for land use between the Swedish State and Sami Reindeer Herders has been on the rise for a long time through an unequal balancing of powers, leading to colonising processes by the Swedish State. Through the approval of the Critical Raw Materials Act, continued oppression towards the marginalised community is enacted, understood as modern coloniality. However, the incorporation of the European Union as a legislator on the issue opens the door for further debate on its role in the protection of Indigenous Rights, as a supranational legislator with direct effects on domestic grounds.
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