Aurubis Bulgaria hosts MEP Radan Kanev and industry delegation

Radan Kanev, Member of European Parliament and a leading voice on industrial environmental policies, today visited Aurubis AG copper production plant in Pirdop, Bulgaria. He was joined by a delegation of Bulgarian and European metals industry executives. The group discussed how EU legislation should be designed to better support Aurubis and other metals companies in their supply of strategic raw materials to the energy transition.

MEP Kanev and Aurubis were joined by senior executives from Bulgarian metals production sector represented in the Bulgarian Association of Metallurgical Industry (BAMI), and Eurometaux, Europe’s metals association. The group discussed a range of upcoming EU policies, including the Critical Raw Materials Act, the Industrial Emissions and Air Quality Directives, and energy challenges.

“Today’s discussion highlighted how important the joint efforts of policymakers and business are in securing critical supplies for Europe's sustainable transition. We all learned our lessons from the crises”, Tim Kurth, CEO of Aurubis Bulgaria, said. “With the upcoming expansion of cathode copper production, we are committed to our long term operations in Bulgaria and to meet the growing demand driven by Europe’s energy transition”, Kurth added.

The European Commission’s Critical Raw Materials Act has this month formally identified copper as a strategic raw material to achieving the EU’s energy transition, prioritizing an expansion of European production.

Elena Vyboldina, Eurometaux International Trade & Economy Director: “Aurubis Pirdop plays an important strategic role in supplying copper to Europe’s energy transition. Today we’ve seen first-hand the plant’s leading environment and health protection after several decades of investment. Metal supplied from European producers like Aurubis offers the best guarantee of sustainability for our electric vehicles, grid infrastructure and renewable energy technologies. The European Union’s policies must be designed to give Aurubis the support it needs to stay globally competitive against producers in less regulated regions”

Radan Kanev, MEP, commented: “It was a pleasure to visit the Aurubis plant in Bulgaria today. I was impressed, also as the rapporteur of the industrial emissions directive, to see how far our industrial sites in Bulgaria have come. Our European legislation is clearly working and our industry is compliant with the highest ESG standards. The focus however also needs to be put on the competitiveness of the industry. The Critical Raw Materials Act and the Net Zero Industry Act might have the capacity to contribute significantly here too. At the European Parliament we will work intensely for this important purpose.”

Radan Kanev is a leading MEP in the European Parliament’s environmental and employment committees. Currently, he is the rapporteur for the European Parliament in its review of the Industrial Emissions Directive, which is the EU’s policy framework for reducing industrial emissions and achieving a high level of environmental and health protection.

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