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  Organisation : Romain Capliez-Wahart et Noé Viguié.
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date_range 05 NOVEMBER 2026

Water Stakes in the Mineral Trilemma:Stakeholder Perspectives from an EU Consultation

Speaker(s)

Emilie Normand

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En distanciel

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Discutant sénior : Carl Grekou
Discutant junior : Romain Capliez

Abstract : Global demand for critical minerals is expected to increase substantially in the coming decades, thereby raising the water-related stakes of mining activities. Yet, amid international pressure to fast-track critical minerals project permitting and simplify the associated regulatory frameworks, the protection of water resources may conflict with mineral security and economic objectives. This article examines how stakeholders articulate these tensions through the lens of the mineral trilemma, which captures the competing objectives of mineral security, economic viability, and sustainability. It analyses non-citizen responses to the European Commission’s March-April 2026 consultation on a targeted reform of the Water Framework Directive. Responses were examined through systematic manual coding to identify perceived trade-offs and the justifications used to support them. The findings show that approximately half of respondents support a WFD reform, but that the claims regarding regulatory bottlenecks affecting mining projects are rarely substantiated with specific empirical evidence from existing mining cases. They also reveal contrasting priorities across stakeholder groups: mining-related actors tend to emphasise mineral security and economic viability, whereas environmental, water, and agricultural stakeholders place greater emphasis on the sustainability dimension of the trilemma. These findings illustrate how the pursuit of CM supply security can generate competing interpretations of water-related regulatory constraints, highlighting contested trade-offs between water governance and energy transition objectives.

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