The European Commission’s executive vice-president Stéphane Séjourné has offered to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with New Caledonia on the French Pacific territory’s crucial nickel resources.
Séjourné arrived in New Caledonia over the weekend for a four-day visit, which is expected to conclude with the signing of a pact on Tuesday.
The deal, from the European Union’s (EU) point of view, would recognise nickel’s place as a strategic resource and raw material.
New Caledonia, as a French Pacific territory, is classified as an EU “Overseas Country and Territory” (PTOM).
Séjourné is the EU’s vice-president and commissioner for prosperity and industrial strategy.
Speaking before New Caledonia’s Congress on Monday, he outlined the main areas where the EU – apart from nickel – would be willing to intervene, including in terms of training and infrastructure.
“We have not measured so far the extent of our shared destiny [with New Caledonia]”, he told the local parliament, presenting the EU as “an ally to build your future, as a partner of your economic development, as a bridge to reinforce your influence in the Pacific”.
“Our world’s developments are leading us today to rethink our strategy, international equilibriums are upset, trade tensions are multiplying, raw materials, energy, digital infrastructures are the new priorities at the European level,” he said.
European Commission’s executive vice-president Stéphane Séjourné delivers an address before New Caledonia’s Congress on 19 October 2026.
Screengrab / Youtube/Congrès de la Nouvelle-Calédonie
Séjourné said the EU’s offer to New Caledonia does not only include nickel, but also energy to contribute to its transition towards a cheaper and reformed energy production system.
The EU was also willing to inject more funds towards professional training, insertion and social cohesion.
And another facet of the EU aid would also cover development and infrastructure projects to help “diversify” New Caledonia’s economy.
This includes moves to develop and upgrade the capital Nouméa’s port, its airport and aircraft maintenance facilities, as well as the installation of more undersea cables to facilitate connection with Asia and other Pacific islands.
He said the vice-president of the European Investment Bank (EIB) would visit “early December” to finalise a number of European investments in projects.
‘A more committed partner’
But the main stake, Séjourné said, remained access to New Caledonia’s nickel resources, an “essential pillar” on which the EU and New Caledonia had “shared interests”.
“Europe can become a more committed partner”, he said, adding that as Europe is seeking to diversify its essential raw materials resources, New Caledonia can be part of this diversification.
The main objective of this MOU would be to bring closer New Caledonia’s producers and European buyers in order to avail “a permanent framework” and constitute at the same time “a signal for [European] investors”.
Even if the MOU is signed this week, it will only mark the beginning of a closer New Caledonia-EU relationship, to be followed possibly by more agreements.
“It’s non-binding, it only allows for more future working relations,” Congressman Vaimu’a Muliava from the Éveil Océanien Party said.
“But it’s good that Europe comes here to show its face”, he added.
However, some of the main pro-independence parties, including the FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front – Kanaky-NC group) and the UNI (National Union for Independence), chose not to attend the EU official’s address.
They criticised what they see as a move to disregard New Caledonia’s “sovereignty on mining assets”.
“We hold the keys to nickel in New Caledonia and we must remain in control of the industry’s destiny”, Kanaky-NC Congress caucus President Pierre-Chanel Téin Tutugoro wrote in a release at the weekend.
Calls for homegrown nickel strategy
They also called on local economic and political stakeholders and France to come up with a locally-grown strategy, especially on nickel and how it should be exploited, transformed, processed and exported.
Gil Brial (Les Loyalistes party, pro-France) welcomed the offer, saying EU’s move for closer relationships with New Caledonia, could only stimulate more expressions of interest from potential buyers, as New Caledonia’s three current operators (Prony Nickel Resources, Société Le Nickel and Koniambo Nickel SAS -KNS- are facing difficult times.
Referring to potential interested parties willing to buy a stake in at least two of these companies (KNS and Prony), Brial said closer relations with Europe could “provide fresh prospects for EU-based investors”.
In Prony (South of the main island), an Emirati consortium, New Battery Metals, has recently withdrawn its bid.
In the North, KNS, once a symbol of New Caledonia’s rebalancing of wealth, remains in mothball mode since 2024, when its main shareholder and financier, British-Swiss Glencore, said it was withdrawing from its 49 percent shareholding. These 49 percent remain up for grabs.
International companies, including from China, have recently expressed willingness to buy in KNS.
Similar MOUs have been signed in recent years with such countries as Canada (2021), Namibia (2022), Chile, Argentina, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Zambia and Greenland (2023), Norway, Australia, Rwanda, Uzbekistan and Serbia (2024).
New Caledonia’s economy is still recovering from the devastating effects of violent unrest that broke out in May 2024, causing 14 deaths and over €2 billion in economic damages.
The riots resulted in the burning and looting hundreds of businesses and over 10,000 losing their jobs, including those who worked in the nickel industry.
The crisis in the nickel sector, however, was looming years earlier, due to the increased competition from Asian producers, including Indonesia, which produced more materials and at a cheaper price.
Another compounding factor also comes from latest development in the electric car industry, which now relies less on nickel to manufacture new generation batteries.
