Germany plans to create a Resources Agency

On 7 September, at the annual meeting of German ambassadors, the German Economy Minister Rainer Brüderle announced a plan to establish a state-owned Resources Agency (RA). The new agency will be responsible for providing information and analyses that will support German companies in securing resources. The creation of an RA is another signal that the focus on securing German industry’s necessary resources will be one of the top priorities of German foreign policy.

The new agency will gather information about the availability of resources and the demand for them on the German economy, it will strengthen cooperation between Germany and countries that supply resources and implement programmes aimed at securing safe supplies for German industry. The RA will replace the resources and geology office that currently exists within the structures of the Ministry of Economy. The agency will deal with strategic resources, i.e. gas and oil but also copper, titan cobalt and lith.

A report published in August this year by the Bundeswehr Transformation Centre that analysed the consequences of diminishing resources placed the issue of securing them as one of top priorities for German foreign policy. The establishment of the German Resources Agency is one of the elements of Germany’s economic policy that aims at boosting exports. It also reveals that Germany is convinced that it should independently seek to secure access to resources although Germany will probably join EU initiatives regarding that question. <pop>