Obligation recycling & safety requirements

The European Commission uses a regulation to legislate on batteries. Upon entering into force on Aug. 17, 2023 this regulation replaced the previous Batteries Directive. While a directive sets an objective that all EU countries must achieve and gives them the freedom to draft their own legislation, a regulation a binding legislative act which in its entirety should be applied immediately throughout the EU.

ESNL has organized for its members the articles of the regulation by topic and arranged by type of user. Furthermore, ESNL provides an overview of Primary and Secondary legislation with the relevant timeline and other important policies and legislative actions. These can be found behind the login to the knowledge base (members only).

In addition, ESNL would like to draw the industry's attention to the following important documents:

• Link to the battery regulation: Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 July 2023 on batteries and waste batteries, amending Directive 2008/98/EC and Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 and repealing Directive 2006/66/EC
• Bebat infographic: The new European Battery Regulation
• Bebat file: Draft Battery Ordinance 2023 in ten points

ESNL wants to put emphasis behind 2 measures

• Article 7: Carbon footprint for industrial and electric vehicle batteries

EU delegated act: establishing methodology for carbon footprint calculation and verification, and its implementing act for EV batteries valid (as of) February 18, 2024

• Article 10: Performance and Durability of Batteries

EU delegated act: ensuring that LMT batteries, rechargeable industrial batteries with capacity above 2 kWh, and electric vehicle batteries are accompanied by a document with values for electrochemical performance and durability parameters valid (as of) Aug. 18, 2024

General information battery regulation

The choice of a regulation over a directive aims to address some perceived shortcomings/inadequate functioning of the EU internal market, including:

• The absence of a complete set of rules for batteries placed on the market.
• Uneven implementation of obligations among EU member states.
• The existence of barriers to the operation of recycling markets.

The regulation includes a complete set of rules for batteries placed on the market and removes barriers to harmonized product requirements and the effective functioning of recycling markets. The focus is on the legal basis of the internal market, while achieving environmental goals is central; other goals are secondary.

The Batteries Ordinance strives to:

• Harmonization of product requirements for batteries.
• Minimizing the environmental impact of batteries.
• "Closing the loop" by promoting reuse and improving the collection and recycling of materials.
• Providing legal certainty to encourage investment and increase renewable battery production capacity in Europe and beyond.

This is achieved by, among other things:

• Durability and safety requirements for batteries.
• Performance and sustainability requirements.
• Labeling and information requirements, for example, regarding hazardous materials.
• End-of-life management, with increased separate collection, recycling and material recovery.

Note that this note focuses on industrial batteries, stationary storage systems and electric vehicle batteries.