The EU Parliament reached a consensus this week on the long-awaited proposal for a regulation on batteries and waste batteries that was initially tabled in December 2020.

The new Regulation aims at promoting circular economy and reducing the environmental and social impact throughout all stages of the battery life cycle. The most significant measures expected are:

• A compulsory carbon footprint declaration and label for electric vehicles (EV) batteries, light means of transport (LMT) batteries (e.g. for electric scooters and bikes), and rechargeable industrial batteries with a capacity above 2kWh;
• Designing portable batteries in appliances in such a way that consumers can themselves easily remove and replace them;
• A digital battery passport for LMT batteries, industrial batteries with a capacity above 2 kWh, and EV batteries;
• A due diligence policy for all economic operators, except for SMEs;
• Progressively stricter waste collection targets for portable batteries until 2031;
• Minimum levels of materials recovered from waste batteries by 2027 and 2031;
• Progressive minimum levels of recycled content from manufacturing and consumer waste for use in new batteries across the next 13 years.

A transition period of 12 and 36 months is foreseen for most of the requirements. Following the final vote in plenary, the Council will now have to formally endorse the text before its publication in the EU Official Journal.

1cc will keep you updated with the developments in due course.

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