Judging by their debate on Wednesday 9 March in Strasbourg, MEPs are overwhelmingly in favour of strengthening the December 2020 proposal for a regulation to improve the sustainability of batteries throughout their life cycle and to create a genuine European battery market that will guarantee the EU’s strategic autonomy.
This is precisely what Simona Bonafé (S&D, Italy) is proposing, and she called on her colleagues to approve her report in large numbers, as did the Committee on the Environment (see EUROPE 12888/13).
The aim is twofold: “to protect human health and the environment, and to maintain the value chain in Europe”, stressed Ms Bonafé, emphasising the importance for the EU of reusing scarce raw materials such as cobalt and lithium for the production of batteries for industry, transport electrification, mobile phones or tablets - fast-growing everyday objects.
“This future regulation is essential as it will set standards for the design, recycling and reuse of batteries. We have increased the targets for recovery and recycling of end-of-life raw materials so that we can make new batteries and be less dependent on imports”, she said.
Among the main advances, she cited the strengthening of sustainability criteria, a carbon footprint declaration, recyclable content, standards for common chargers, a due diligence to avoid child labour in the value chain, the application of the regulation to all batteries placed on the EU market, the introduction of a new category for batteries for light vehicles such as bicycles, scooters and electric pushbikes.
The EPP, S&D, Renew Europe, Greens/EFA and The Left political groups welcomed the ambition of the text and its timeliness, as did Antonius Manders (EPP, Netherlands) of the Committee on Internal Market, for whom “the dramatic situation today shows that Europe must produce its own batteries”. According to him, “an industrial policy is in the making, without forgetting the environment and the circular economy from extraction”.
Speaking on behalf of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, Patrizia Toia (S&D, Italy) said the legislation “will promote the transition to renewables and allow the EU to lead the way with the highest recycling standards”. His colleague Ismail Ertug (S&D, Germany), on behalf of the ‘Transport’ Committee, welcomed the inclusion of light vehicles.
Karin Karlsbro (Renew Europe, Sweden) welcomed “a model of future and green legislation”.
According to Malte Gallée (Greens/EFA, Germany) “it has never been more urgent to do everything possible to get rid of fossil fuels”, and this project is “revolutionary” to “lay the foundations for clean batteries made in Europe”. Silvia Modig (The Left, Finland) was equally enthusiastic.
Some sceptics. Sylvia Limmer (ID, Germany) questioned the sustainability of batteries and the ability of the future regulation to foster the EU’s strategic autonomy, given the EU’s dependence on Russia for nickel, for example, and on China. Her group has tabled amendments to reject child labour.
“It is not certain that electric cars pollute less than those with combustion engines”, said Nicola Procaccini (ECR, Italy), denouncing an “ideological position in favour of all-electricity, which will lead us to dependence vis-a-vis China”.
The Commissioner for the Environment, Virginijus Sinkevičius, will facilitate negotiations between the Parliament and the EU Council after the latter has adopted its position on 17 March. However, he warned that the amendments should be “ambitious but realistic” to “provide a predictable framework to ensure the competitiveness of this emerging value chain”.
MEPs were due to vote on Wednesday evening; the result of the vote will be known on Thursday.
See the draft resolution: https://aeur.eu/f/ns (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)