Updating the EU regulatory framework for batteries

This briefing provides an initial analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the European Commission's impact assessment (IA) accompanying the above-mentioned proposal, adopted on 10 December 2020 and referred to the European Parliament's Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO). The proposal seeks to update the EU's legislative framework for batteries as laid out in Directive 2006/66/EC (the Batteries Directive), whose objective is 'to minimise the negative impact of batteries and waste batteries on the environment, to help protect, preserve and improve the quality of the environment and to ensure the smooth functioning of the internal market' (IA, p. 10). With its proposal, the Commission intends to ensure that the existing framework could contribute to the ultimate objective of achieving an economy with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions (i.e. climate neutrality) by 2050, in line with the Commission communication on the European Green Deal, COM(2019) 640. In addition, the proposal aims to contribute to environmental protection, by stimulating investments in the production of batteries with a minimised environmental impact over their life cycle.