With a large majority, the EU Parliament adopted the Council position on the new EU Battery Regulation, which is to replace the previous EU Battery Directive of 2006. The regulation is intended to ensure a more sustainable use of batteries throughout the EU and for the first time focuses on the entire life cycle of batteries.
FBDi supports the requirement that due diligence should be considered along the entire value chain, for example in procurement and processing.
Following the decision of the Environment Council, a quick agreement is to be reached in the so-called trilogue procedure between the EU member states, EU Parliament and EU Commission. After that, the Battery Regulation will come into force immediately throughout the EU. While a Europe-wide deposit system did not receive majority approval, the following highlight some of the points for negotiation with EU states:
- More stringent requirements for sustainability, performance and labelling
- Rules for a carbon footprint declaration for electric vehicles (traction batteries) and industrial batteries, and an associated label
- Minimum durability and performance requirements for industrial batteries and general purpose traction batteries
- Designing batteries in devices such as smartphones and LMTs so that users and independent professionals can easily and safely remove them themselves