European battery organisations welcomed the passing of the European Union’s Batteries Regulation on Wednesday.
The regulation, if ratified by the European Council next week, is expected to regulate batteries for the next decade. It will enter into force in the summer if passed.
Rene Schroeder, director of European batteries’ association Eurobat, said: “Eurobat calls on the European Commission to align new and upcoming legislation affecting batteries with the Batteries Regulation to ensure a consistent regulatory framework for batteries, such as in the upcoming End-of-Life Vehicles Regulation, as well as proposals for restricting the use of substances and critical raw materials for batteries.”
The regulation will establish “a definitive green standard” for product-specific legislation, it said, which other industries could follow. A lot of detail will need to be added after the regulation comes in, it said.
Recharge, industry association for advanced rechargeable and lithium batteries, said the new sustainability measures “will set the rules for the game” for selling batteries in Europe. And two complementary pieces of legislation, the Critical Raw Materials Act and the Net Zero Industry Act, need to be implemented quickly to prevent industry standstill, it said.
Dr Steve Binks, the International Lead Association’s Regulatory Affairs Director, said the new regulation is the first piece of legislation that covers the entire battery life cycle. “Legislators must now ensure that the plethora of secondary legislation built into the proposal is properly developed to facilitate strong and globally competitive battery value chains for all chemistries,” he added.
