WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/TBT/N/EEC/247/Add.1 
21 March 2011  
 (11-1396) 
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade Original:   English 
  
 
NOTIFICATION  
 
Addendum
 
  
 The following communication, dated 18 March 2011, is being circulated at the request of the 
delegation of the European Union
.  
 
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 The European Union would like to inform th e WTO Members that the European Parliament 
(EP) has adopted a first reading position on the prop osal for a Directive of the European Parliament 
and of the Council on the restriction of the use of  certain hazardous substances in electrical and 
electronic equipment (RoHS recast proposal) on 24 N ovember 2010.  The text of the EP Position is 
available at: 
"http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc. do?type=TA&language=EN& reference=P7-TA-2010-
0431"  
  The Appendix to this addendum explains the main changes in the EP Position regarding the 
Commission proposal. 
 
 The European Union underlines, that at all st ages of the procedure, the RoHS recast proposal 
has been developed in a climate of transparency and consultation.  The European Commission has had 
an open and constructive dialogue w ith third country representatives on the RoHS recast proposal and 
has taken great care to ensure th at the WTO rules are respected.  
 
 
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 G/TBT/N/EEC/247/Add.1 
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  APPENDIX 
 
NOTE 
 
Main elements of the Commission proposal 
 
 The objectives of the Commission proposal were to clarify and simplify Directive 2002/95/EC of the European Parliament and of th e Council of 27 January 2003 on the restriction of 
the use of certain hazardous substances in elect rical and electronic equipment as amended (RoHS 
Directive), improve enforcement at national level, adapt the text to technical and scientific progress, 
and improve coherence with other pi eces of EU legislation (e.g. REACH). 
  The Commission proposal maintained the key elem ents of the existing Directive such as the 
list of banned substances (no substa nces added or removed) and the possibility to grant exemptions 
for certain applications of these substances. 
 
 The proposal introduced the following main changes:  
- Clarification of the scope and definitions, in pa rticular by creating a binding list of products 
defining the scope of the RoHS Directive; 
 
- Introduction of relevant provisions already used in other EU legislation, in particular the 
"Marketing of products" package of legisla tion concerning national market surveillance 
activities and mechanisms for assessing conformity of products, alignment of definitions with 
the revised Waste Framework Directive (Directive 2008/98/EC on waste); 
 
- Adaptation of the procedure for exemptions as well as a maximum validity period for 
exemptions of 4 years; 
 
- Gradual inclusion of medical devices and monito ring and control instruments in the scope of 
RoHS; 
 
- Establishment of a clear mechanism for identifyi ng and, if necessary, restricting the use of 
additional hazardous substances which exploits a ll possible synergies with the EU chemicals 
legislation, and of a list of hazardous substan ces to be examined with priority via this 
mechanism; 
 
- A list of 4 candidate substances for future restric tions (to be examined with priority) in Annex 
III to the RoHS Directive. 
 
Main changes introduced to the Commission proposal by the EP First Reading Position 
 
 The most significant changes are listed below. Except for the scope of th e Directive, the basic 
concept of the Commission proposal remained unchanged. 
 SCOPE  
Open scope 
  In its First Reading Position, the EP added a new category 11 "Other electrical and electronic 
equipment not covered by any of the categories above" to Annex I ("Categories of electrical and 
electronic equipment covered by this Directive"). 
  G/TBT/N/EEC/247/Add.1 
 Page 3 
 
 
  Extended availability of EEE not covered by the scope of "old" RoHS Directive 
 
 In return, additional Article 2(2) now stipulates that without prejudice to Article 4(3) and 4(4) 
EU Member States shall provide that electrical a nd electronic equipment (EEE) that was outside the 
scope of the old RoHS Directive, but which would not comply with the new (revised) RoHS 
Directive, may nevertheless continue to be made av ailable on the market until 8 years after the date of 
entry into force.  
Extended list of exclusions from new scope 
 
 Furthermore, the list of exclusions from the new scope of the RoHS Directive (now Article 
2(4); cf. 2(3) in the Commission proposal) was extended significantly.  EXEMPTIONS  Maximum validity period 
 
 The maximum validity period of exemptions from the substance restrictions was changed 
from 4 to 5 years (7 years for medical devi ces and monitoring and control instruments). 
 HAZARDOUS SUBSTANCES  Priority substances list 
 
 A list of 4 candidate substances for future r estrictions (to be examined with priority, 
Commission proposal Annex III and Article 4(7)) was deleted. In return, a review mechanism for 
restricted substances (EP Position Annex II and Article 6) was developed in more detail. 
  
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