EU Battery Regulation: 200 amendments proposed

Simona Bonafé, the rapporteur in the European Parliament’s Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) has published her draft report on the new EU Battery Regulation.

The report contains more than 200 proposals for concrete amendments to the proposal released by the European Commission.

Some of the amendments are in line with the proposals from Landbell Group company, European Recycling Platform (ERP) which is closely accompanying the legislative process. For more information on ERP’s proposals, read the article.

Among other things, the rapporteur proposes to modify the definitions of portable and industrial batteries. The draft report also proposes creating a new category of batteries for light means of transport as this represents a specific and growing market. This fifth battery category would apply principles and targets that are similar to the portable batteries category.

The report does not address the heavily discussed topic of changing the base for the collection targets from put-on-market to available for collection.

Work on the Battery Regulation is also progressing in the Committees on Industry, Transport, and Internal Market and Consumer Protection. There, in addition to the draft reports of the respective rapporteurs, the other committee members have also tabled draft amendments.

The Industry Committee has already voted on the proposal. The other two committees are scheduled to vote on 1 and 9 December respectively.

ENVI plans to wrap up the Battery Regulation in January 2022, before the Parliament’s Plenary one month later.

This means that the French Council Presidency will have the lead in the upcoming trialogue negotiations, taking over from the Slovenian Presidency on 1 January.