COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE IMPACT ASSESSMENT REPORT Accompanying the document Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning batteries and waste batteries, repealing Directive 2006/66/EC and amending Regulation (EU) 2019/1020
Date: 2020-12-10
Institutions: Directorate-General for Environment, European Commission
Subjects: EC conformity marking, consumer information, electricity storage device, electronic waste, hazardous waste, labelling, market approval, product safety, waste management

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   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 10.12.2020  SWD(2020) 334 final  COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT  EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE IMPACT ASSESSMENT REPORT  Accompanying the document Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning batteries and waste batteries, repealing Directive 2006/66/EC and amending Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 {COM(2020) 798 final} - {SEC(2020) 420 final} - {SWD(2020) 335 final}  
 
 
What is the problem? 

This  impact  assessment  looks  at  a  proposal  for  a  regulation  that  will  replace  the  Batteries 
Directive. It aims to address three groups of highly interlinked problems related to batteries:  

1.  the lack of framework conditions providing incentives to invest in production capacity 
for  sustainable  batteries,  which  is  linked  to  potentially  diverging  regulatory 
frameworks within the internal market;  

2.  the  sub-optimal  functioning  of  recycling  markets  and  insufficiently  closed  materials 
loops, which limits the EU’s potential to mitigate risks to the supply of raw materials;  
3.  social  and  environmental  risks  that  are  currently  not  covered  by  EU  environmental 

law. 

What do we want to achieve? 

The proposal has three highly interlinked objectives:  

1.  strengthening the functioning of the EU internal market for batteries;  
2.  promoting the circular economy by closing the materials loop; 
3.  reducing the environmental and social impacts of batteries throughout their lifecycle.  

What are the options? 

  Option 1, business as usual, does not amend the Batteries Directive, which mostly covers 
the end-of-life stage of batteries. There is currently no EU legislation in  place to cover 
the earlier stages in the batteries value chain and life cycle.  

  Option 2, with a medium level of ambition, gradually strengthens the requirements and 
increases the level of ambition, both for the manufacturing and the end-of-life stages of 
batteries, and does so mostly in the form of issuing information requirements.  

  Option 3, with a high level of ambition, is a bit  more disruptive approach, but remains 
technically feasible. It entails setting limit values and thresholds for compliance within a 
set deadline. 

  Option 4¸ with a very high level of ambition, includes measures that would go far beyond 

the current regulatory framework and current business practice.  

What is the preferred option and why? 

The  preferred  option  is  a  combination  of  Option  2  and  Option  3.  It  includes  a  range  of 
measures  along  the  value  chain,  such  as  enabling  the  second  life  of  industrial  batteries, 
increasing  the  target  collection  rate  for  portable  waste  batteries  from  65%,  increasing  the 
recovery of materials, setting new recycling efficiency requirements for lead and lithium-ion 
batteries,  improving  performance  and  durability,  setting  requirements  on  carbon  intensity, 
tackling  poor  information  flow  and  putting  in  place  due  diligence  for  the  origins  of  raw 
materials.  

Legally, the switch from a directive to a regulation will result in direct requirements for all 
economic operators and a number of national authorities and other bodies. This will have the 
effect  of  improving  harmonisation,  providing  the  necessary  legal  certainty  and  making  it 
possible to enforce a fully integrated market across the EU throughout the battery life cycle.  

There will be some financial costs related to some of the measures, but no significant impacts 
are  expected  for  business  or  consumers.  There  will  also  be  a  small  increase  in  the 
administrative burden, particularly on the carbon footprint and recycled content requirements.   

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However  the  benefits  clearly  outweigh  the  costs.  The  proposed  regulation  will  tackle  the 
problems  inherent  in  the  current  situation.  It  will  improve  the  functioning  of  the  internal 
market,  reduce  environmental  impacts  such  as  greenhouse  gas  emissions  and  reduce 
environmental and social risks. In addition, it will bring significant indirect benefits in terms 
of new jobs in the lithium batteries manufacturing and recycling sector. 

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