The European Union continues to broaden ties with the Australian resources sector following the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding on Critical Raw Materials, by hosting a key reception at this year’s International Mining and Resource Conference (IMARC) in Sydney.

EU Ambassador Gabriele Visentin said that deepening the EU and Australia relationship was crucial in the wake of the growing importance of critical minerals, the global supply chain and our deepening cooperation with Australia.

“The EU and Australia are like-minded partners. And let’s face it; there are strong complementarities- Australia is a stable democracy based on a rule of law and human rights and a resource-rich country with an already prodigious technologically advanced mining industry,'' he said.

“We in the EU need to grow our own indigenous mining and processing sectors, but we also need to strengthen our ties with partners such as Australia to improve security of supply.''

Ambassador Visentin also noted that the EU is incentivizing the European Union industry to look at Australia as an attractive partner for business and investment.

The reception also heard from high-level EU Member State officials Benjamin Galletzot, Allard Castelein and Bernhard Kluttig from France, the Netherlands, and Germany respectively.

The reception comes just one week after a highly successful trip by representatives of the European Union and its member states to Western Australia.

The visit which brought together 23 representatives from the EU, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cypress, the Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, France, Finland, Croatia, Hungary, Ireland, Lithuania, Latvia, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Slovenia, Portugal, Spain and Malta is the largest joint delegation of EU Member State diplomatic representatives to Western Australia in recent years.