Debate: Batteries and waste batteries
Date: TUESDAY, 13 JUNE 2023
Speaker: Virginijus Sinkevičius
Language: EN

First of all, on our dependency on critical raw materials that are needed for batteries, on the contrary, this proposal strengthens our strategic autonomy. Targets for recycling efficiency, material recovery and recycled content will be introduced gradually. From 2025 onwards, all collected waste batteries will have to be recycled and high levels of recovery will have to be achieved, in particular for critical raw materials such as cobalt, lithium and nickel. And that brings multiple benefits. First of all, as I said, that strengthens our strategic autonomy. Secondly, it significantly decreases pressures on the environment, and that will guarantee that valuable materials are recovered at the end of their useful life and brought back into the economy by adopting stricter targets for recycling efficiency and material recovery over time. And material recovery targets for cobalt and nickel will be 90% by 2027 and 95% by 2031. And for lithium, 50% by 2027 and 80% by 2031. So, as you see, it’s gradually increasing and it’s really ambitious. Now, the last thing which has been mentioned also a lot – and it is extremely important, I know, for this House as it is for the Commission – is, of course, the due diligence and compatibility with our Due Diligence Directive. Our legislation aims, first of all, at ensuring full compatibility, at fostering sustainable and responsible corporate behaviour and to honour and ensure human rights and environmental considerations in companies and operations and corporate governance. So, the CSDD rules, the new rules, they will ensure that businesses address the adverse impact of their own operations, operations of their subsidiaries and including in their value chains inside and outside Europe. Just to finalise, this proposal will definitely stay in my memory for two reasons: partly because it was genuinely ambitious, but also because it was the first circular economy legislative initiative of the European Green Deal to be adopted by the Commission, and that made it a blueprint for the whole new approach that we take to sustainable product policy. It aims to make sustainable products the norm and that’s exactly what we are aiming for with the proposed regulation on ecodesign for sustainable products. I am sure you all share a great sense of pride at this successful outcome. I am sure that it will also inspire us during the hard work ahead as we work to ensure the smooth implementation of this ambitious new framework. So thank you once again for your extremely constructive role in this success story for the entire European Union. *** The Commission notes that the approach agreed by the co-legislators linking the applicability of certain sustainability rules with the adoption of the respective delegated or implementing acts by the Commission may impinge on the legal certainty for the economic operators about the applicability of the rules in the Regulation. The Commission regrets the short deadlines for the adoption of delegated and implementing acts as well as several other follow-up actions and expresses concern about the feasibility to comply with these deadlines in time. The Commission notes that the implementation of the Regulation will require significant resources in the Commission.