On the table since December 2020, the proposal for an EU regulation on batteries and battery waste is expected to receive a political agreement (or ‘general approach’) from the Environment Council on 17 March.
On Friday 11 March, the Member States’ ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) agreed on the text to be presented to the European Environment Ministers. They will formally adopt the EU Council’s position on this future regulation emblematic of the circular economy, which will impose sustainability requirements on batteries throughout their life cycle and is expected to foster a genuine European battery market (see EUROPE 12897/15).
“The text is stable and should be adopted without changes on 17 March”, a diplomatic source commented on Friday.
The European Parliament has just decided on ambitious targets and is ready to start interinstitutional negotiations (see EUROPE 12908/12, 12907/14).
The question of timetables was one of the thorniest issues. In the text to be submitted to the Ministers, the implementation dates will be, on the whole, postponed.
For the collection schedules for portable batteries, the EU Council would like to see a number of months after the entry into force of the regulation, rather than specific dates.
The legal basis of the regulation would be twofold - Environment (Article 192) and Internal Market (Article 114) - as requested by the Environment Council.
The scope of application has been extended. The future regulation will reportedly cover both modules placed on the market ready for use or assembly and all batteries for electric vehicles (the 2 KW capacity threshold proposed by the European Commission was deleted by the Member States).
With regard to restrictions on dangerous substances, it would not be the REACH Regulation 1907/2006 governing marketing authorisations for chemical substances and restrictions that would apply.
Member States are indeed in favour of a specific procedure in this future regulation on batteries and battery waste. However, the compromise provides for the issue to be revisited during the revision of the REACH regulation in order to ensure consistency between the two regulations.
On the carbon footprint of batteries, the Environment Council has separated the rules for vehicle batteries from those for industrial batteries. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)