Work will intensify on the proposed 2020 EU regulation on batteries and battery waste, an issue on which the French Presidency of the EU Council hopes for rapid progress. Three Council Presidencies have already been active on it (see EUROPE 12857/1).
On this matter, the European metals and battery industry presented its position in mid-January on one of the key outstanding issues: the durability and safety requirements for the placing on the market of batteries (Chapter II), and in particular Article 6 on hazardous substances.
Although many substances used in batteries have hazardous properties, they do not pose a risk to human health or the environment when batteries are properly manufactured, used and recycled, stress RECHARGE, Eurobat and Eurométaux in a joint position paper. They highlight in this respect that batteries are sealed units, designed to prevent substances from being released during normal and foreseeable use.
Safety and regulatory consistency
In addition to their recommendations for appropriate and consistent risk management of metals in batteries, they call for consistency between the future battery regulation and REACH (EC) No 1907/2006 governing market authorisations and restrictions for chemical substances.
To this end, they call for an amendment to Article 6 to provide the industry with a more predictable regulatory framework, which they consider essential to ensure long-term investment in the competitive and sustainable European battery value chain.
Like the EU Environment Ministers, these industries believe that REACH should apply. They argue, with examples, that REACH, and in particular Annex XVII to it, already takes into account the risks associated with exposure to substances in the waste phase.
In their view, Article 6 of the proposed battery regulation could be amended to refer directly to horizontal legislation in the form of Annex XVII of REACH rather than creating a parallel and possibly duplicative process to deal with the same issue. In doing so, they support a suggestion made by Belgium in an unofficial document.
The European Parliament’s Environment Committee will vote on 10 February, with a plenary vote scheduled for March.
See the industry position paper: https://bit.ly/3fANxA6 (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)