REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the exercise of the power to adopt delegated acts conferred on the Commission pursuant to Directive 2011/65/EU on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment
Date: 2021-10-20
Institutions: Directorate-General for Environment, European Commission
Subjects: European Commission, delegated legislation, electricity storage device, electronic component, electronic waste, hazardous waste, market supervision, marketing standard, toxic substance, transfer of competence

EN 

  EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 20.10.2021  COM(2021) 641 final  REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL on the exercise of the power to adopt delegated acts conferred on the Commission pursuant to Directive 2011/65/EU on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment   
 
 
REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND 
THE COUNCIL  

on the exercise of the power to adopt delegated acts conferred on the Commission 
pursuant to Directive 2011/65/EU on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous 
substances in electrical and electronic equipment 

1. INTRODUCTION 

Directive 2011/65/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 2011 on the 
restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment1 
(the RoHS Directive) lays down rules on the restriction of the use of hazardous substances in 
electrical  and  electronic  equipment  (EEE)  with  a  view  of  contributing  to  the  protection  of 
human  health  and  the  environment,  including  the  environmentally  sound  recovery  and 
disposal of waste EEE.  

Article  4  of  the  RoHS  Directive  obliges  Member  States  to  ensure  that  EEE  placed  on  the 
market  does  not  contain  the  substances  listed  in  Annex  II.  Annexes  III  and  IV  list 
applications exempted from that restriction.  

The  Directive  empowers  the  Commission  to  adopt  delegated  acts  with  regard  to  three 
different provisions, in view of:  

 

 

 

the specification of detailed rules for complying with maximum concentration values 
by  weight  in  homogeneous  materials  as  specified  in    Annex  II  of  the  Directive, 
provided for in RoHS Article 4(2); 
the  adaptation  of    Annexes  III  and  IV  to  scientific  and  technical  progress,  both  for 
inclusion  and  deletion  of  exemptions  from  the  restriction  provided  in    Article  4(1), 
provided for in the RoHS Directive Article 5(1); 
the review and amendment of the list of restricted substances in Annex II, provided 
for in Article 6(3).  

2. LEGAL BASIS 

The  present  report  is  required  under  Article  20(1)  of  the  RoHS  Directive.  Pursuant  to  this 
provision, the power to adopt delegated acts is conferred on the Commission for a period of 
five years from 21 July 2011 and the Commission is required to draw up a report in respect of 
delegated powers, at the latest 6 months before the end of the five year period. The delegation 
of  power  shall  be  automatically  extended  for  periods  of  an  identical  duration,  unless  the 
European Parliament or the Council revokes it in accordance with Article 21. The previous 
report2 on the exercise of the delegation of power conferred on the Commission with regard 
to Directive 2011/65/EU was adopted by the Commission on 18 April 2016. The Commission 
invited the European Parliament and the Council to take note of that report.  

1 OJ L 174, 1.7.2011, p. 88. 
2 COM (2016) 215 final, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-
content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52016DC0215&from=EN. 

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3. EXERCISE OF THE DELEGATION 

The exercise of the delegated power was necessary during the reporting period with respect to 
several provisions foreseen by the Directive, as follows: 

3.1. Rules for complying with maximum concentration values, Article 4(2)  

Regarding  the  specifications  of  detailed  rules  for  complying  with  maximum  concentration 
values  by  weight  in  homogeneous  materials  as  specified  in  RoHS  Annex  II,  since  the 
previous report3, there has been no change in the situation as regards the necessity to adopt a 
delegated act to provide for those rules in accordance with Article 4(2). 

3.2.  Exemptions  from  the  substance  restrictions  provided  for  in  Article  4(1),  under 
Article 5(1)  

During the period covered by this report4, the Commission received 102 applications5, for the 
adaptation of the Directive's Annexes III and IV to scientific and technical progress regarding 
exemptions  from  the substance restriction  in  accordance with  RoHS  Article 5, 50 of which 
were  submitted  between  November  2019  and  January  2020  and  26  in  January  2021.   
Following  the  required  scientific  and  technical  assessment  of  these  applications,  the 
Commission adopted 32 individual delegated directives6 to amend Annexes  III and IV with 

3 Ibid. 
4 Until 18 April 2021. 
5 Note that several applications may refer to the same exemption/ new application to be included in the Annex.   
6Commission Delegated Directive (EU) 2021/884 of 8 March 2021;  
Commission Delegated Directive (EU) 2021/647 of 15 January 2021; 
Commission Delegated Directive (EU) 2020/360  of 17 December 2019; 
Commission Delegated Directive (EU) 2020/361 of 17 December 2019; 
Commission Delegated Directive (EU) 2020/364 of 17 December 2019; 
Commission Delegated Directive (EU) 2020/365 of 17 December 2019; 
Commission Delegated Directive (EU) 2020/366 of 17 December 2019; 
Commission Delegated Directive (EU) 2019/1845 of 8 August 2019; 
Commission Delegated Directive (EU) 2019/1846 of 8 August 2019; 
Commission Delegated Directive (EU) 2019/169  of 16 November 2018; 
Commission Delegated Directive (EU) 2019/170  of 16 November 2018; 
Commission Delegated Directive (EU) 2019/171  of 16 November 2018; 
Commission Delegated Directive (EU) 2019/172  of 16 November 2018; 
Commission Delegated Directive (EU) 2019/173  of 16 November 2018; 
Commission Delegated Directive (EU) 2019/174  of 16 November 2018; 
Commission Delegated Directive (EU) 2019/175  of 16 November 2018; 
Commission Delegated Directive (EU) 2019/176  of 16 November 2018; 
Commission Delegated Directive (EU) 2019/177  of 16 November 2018; 
Commission Delegated Directive (EU) 2019/178  of 16 November 2018; 
Commission Delegated Directive (EU) 2018/739 of 1 March 2018; 
Commission Delegated Directive (EU) 2018/740  of 1 March 2018; 
Commission Delegated Directive (EU) 2018/741 of 1 March 2018; 
Commission Delegated Directive (EU) 2018/742 of 1 March 2018; 
Commission Delegated Directive (EU) 2018/736 of 27 February 2018; 
Commission Delegated Directive (EU) 2018/737 of 27 February 2018; 
Commission Delegated Directive (EU) 2018/738 of 27 February 2018; 

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regard to exemptions from the substance restrictions. The Commission is currently preparing 
a  further  19  delegated  acts  and  is  carrying  out  the  evaluation  of  57  exemption  applications 
which may lead to further delegated acts.  

Neither  the  European  Parliament  nor  the  Council  objected  to  any  of  the  Commission 
delegated  directives  adopted  since  the  last  report  referred  to  above  and,  on  expiry  of  the 
scrutiny  period  provided  for  in  Article  22  of  the  Directive,  these  delegated  acts  were 
published in  the  Official Journal of  the European Union and entered into force on the date 
therein specified.  

3.3. Amendment of the list of restricted substances, Article 6(3) 

According to Article 6 (1) of the RoHS Directive, a review, based on a thorough assessment, 
and  amendment  of  the  list  of  restricted  substances  in  Annex  II  shall  be  considered  by  the 
Commission  before  22  July  2014,  and  periodically  thereafter  on  its  own  initiative  or 
following  the  submission  of  a  proposal  by  a  Member  State.  The  measures  to  review  and 
amend the list  of  restricted substances in  Annex II  shall be adopted by the Commission  by 
means  of  delegated  act.  Further  to  the  delegated  directive7  amending  the  list  of  restricted 
substances in Annex II reported in the previous report, a scientific and technical assessment 
study8, including stakeholder and RoHS  Member  States experts9 consultations, to  support a 
review  of  the  list  of  restricted  substances  was  undertaken  from  January  2018  to  February 
2021.  A  proposal  to  add  medium-chained  chlorinated  paraffins  (MCCP)  to  the  list  of 
restricted substances submitted by the Swedish Chemicals Agency to the Commission in June 
2018 was also assessed in the study.  

Based  on  this  study,  the  Commission  will  proceed  with  further  steps  to  consider  an 
amendment of the list of restricted substances in Annex II.  

3.4. General considerations related to the exercise of delegated powers under the RoHS 
Directive 

A number of steps have to  be carried out  to  comply  with  the requirements  of the Directive 
and the Commission's Better Regulation principles for the preparation and adoption of each 

Commission Delegated Directive (EU) 2017/1975 of August 2017, to be read in conjunction with the 
Corrigendum; 
Commission Delegated Directive (EU) 2017/1009  of March 2017; 
Commission Delegated Directive (EU) 2017/1010  of March 2017; 
Commission Delegated Directive (EU) 2017/1011  of March 2017; 
Commission Delegated Directive (EU) 2016/1028  of 19 April 2016; 
Commission Delegated Directive (EU) 2016/1029 of 19 April 2016 
7 Commission Delegated Directive (EU) 2015/863 of 31 March 2015, OJ L 137, 4.6.2015, p.10. 
8 Study to support the review of the list of restricted substances and to assess a new exemption request under 
RoHS 2 (Pack 15). https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/ce50dc9c-6c19-11eb-aeb5-
01aa75ed71a1/language-en/format-PDF/source-197106951.  
9 Members of the Expert Group for RoHS 2 adaptation and enforcement 
https://ec.europa.eu/transparency/expert-groups-register/screen/expert-
groups/consult?do=groupDetail.groupDetail&groupID=2810. 

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delegated act concerning either the evaluation of a request for exemption or of new substance 
restrictions.  These  include  in  particular,  a  scientific  and  technical  assessment  being 
outsourced to an external consultant extensive stakeholder consultations, the consultation  of 
the Member States' Expert Group convened for the preparation of delegated acts pursuant to 
the  RoHS  Directive  and  information  of  the  European  Parliament  and  the  Council,  the 
notification  to  the  World  Trade  Organisation’s  Committee  on  Technical  Barriers  to  Trade 
publication  of    draft  acts  for  public  feedback  and  related  consideration  of  inter-service 
feedback as well as the European Parliament and Council two-month scrutiny period.  

Article 24(2) of the Directive requires the Commission to carry out a  general review of the 
Directive. The Commission is currently carrying out that review, and an impact assessment 
study to feed into it is underway. A study to support the preceding evaluation of the Directive 
is  completed10.  It  has  identified  areas  for  potential  improvements  regarding,  inter  alia,  the 
process for deciding on the exemptions mentioned above, which will also be reflected in the 
Commission’s  evaluation  report.  The  review  of  the  RoHS  Directive  will  therefore  consider 
ways to address, inter alia, the respective procedures. 

4. CONCLUSION 

Over  the  past  five  years,  the  Commission  has  exercised  properly  the  delegated  powers 
conferred  to  it  under  Directive  2011/65/EU.  It  invites  the  European  Parliament  and  the 
Council to take note of this report. 

10  Support  for  the  evaluation  of  Directive  2011/65/EU  on  the  restriction  of  the  use  of  certain  hazardous 
substances 
https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-
/publication/5b807311-9d93-11eb-b85c-01aa75ed71a1/language-en/format-PDF/source-216492720.  

equipment 

electronic 

electrical 

and 

in 

4