The EU is not competing with the US in its attempts to reach an agreement with Ukraine on rare earth metals. This was stated at a press conference in Brussels by the representative of the European Commission Thomas Rainier.
"There is no offer to Ukraine to sign the agreement", he said, answering a question from journalists whether Brussels has offered Kiev to conclude an agreement on rare earth metals, as Washington did. "The EU is not competing with the US", Renier is categorical.
At the same time, according to him, "the EU has had a partnership with Ukraine on rare earths since 2021, secured by a memorandum of understanding.“
As Le Figaro reported earlier, citing a statement by EC Vice-President Stephane Séjournalist, EU countries are discussing an agreement with Kiev on the development of Ukrainian mineral resources and the extraction of rare earths separately from the US. Renier did not announce the terms of the potential deal, nor the names of the minerals that the EU countries claim.
In early February, US President Donald Trump announced that Washington was interested in obtaining rare earths from Ukraine. On February 12, US Treasury Secretary Scott Besant handed over the text of the minerals agreement to Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv. Zelensky, who had earlier expressed his readiness to conclude a deal, did not sign the document either during a meeting with Besant or later in Munich during talks with US Vice President J. D. Vance.
Zelensky claims that the proposed version has no security guarantees. However, on February 21, US National Security Advisor Mike Walz said that Zelensky would sign an agreement with the United States in the near future. Sources in Zelensky's office then told Ukrainian media that the document still needed to be revised. Zelensky himself said at a press conference on February 23 that he "does not want to sign" an agreement with the US, since, in his opinion, 10 generations of Ukrainians will pay for it.