Policies & Positions

Battery Directive 2006/66/EC
The above directive, which came into force on 26th September 2006 and which Member States were required to transpose into national law by September 2008, places certain obligations on “producers” of portable batteries. These include obligations on the design, use, collection and recycling of portable batteries. Amongst the design and use provisions are:

A prohibition on placing on the market any battery containing more than 0.002% Cadmium and those containing more than 0.0005% Mercury.
The prohibition set out in paragraph above shall not apply to portable batteries and accumulators intended for use in:

The Commission shall review the exemption referred to in the paragraph (c) above and submit a report to the European Parliament and to the Council by 26 September 2010, together, if appropriate, with relevant proposals, with a view to the prohibition of cadmium in batteries and accumulators.

With regard to the review mentioned in (3) above, the Commission has already asked consultants BiPRO to prepare a report for them and this has now been received and published. The Commission has also launched a public consultation on this report and its recommendations, which is open until the beginning of May 2010.

EPTA has worked hard with both the Commission and BiPRO to ensure they both had up to date and relevant information on which to base their recommendations. However, EPTA is disappointed that their principal recommendation (namely that the Power Tool exemption to the prohibition of Cd in Batteries should be removed) is disproportionate to the risks involved in maintaining the exemption and encouraging effective collection and recycling regimes, as laid out in the Directive. From data available through the Commission’s own Targeted Risk Assessment on Cadmium in Batteries, batteries only account for less than 1% of the Cd exposure to humans which is well below the WHO safe levels and has been falling further for many years.

EPTA strongly supports the aims and objectives of the Battery Directive in seeking to reduce the impact of batteries on the environment and human health, but believes that any legislation should be firmly based on available credible scientific data and represent a proportionate response to the risk associated with any particular battery technology.

Batteries, accumulators and waste batteries Directives	2006/66/EC	Link
Batteries, accumulators and waste batteries Directives	Corrigendum article 12(4)	Link
Batteries, accumulators and waste batteries Directives	2008/103/EC	Link

EMC Directive 2004/108/EC

The Electromagnetic Compatibility Directive was published on 31/12/2004 and was followed by the new EMC Standard EN 55014-1:2006 which was ratified in 2006. Compliance of this standard presumes conformity with New EMC Directive 2004/108/EC. Soon after EMC Standard EN 55014-1:2006 was ratified by CENELEC in 2006, work started on Amendment A1 at International level (which effectively included cordless products, previously exempt). This amendment was finally ratified by CENELEC on 27/4/2009 and requires cordless products to comply with the amended standard by May 2012.

EPTA member companies were involved in parts of this process, and support the amended standard and its application to cordless products. However, it is known that many product changes are required in order for all cordless products to comply with the new standard; EPTA have therefore requested that the effective introduction date is delayed by 2 years to May 2014 in order to allow products just introduced in 2009 to complete a normal natural life cycle for a cordless product (5 years). EPTA has produced a paper explaining its case which will be discussed at the Commission’s EMC Working Group meeting in Luxembourg on 22nd April 2010. It has further clarified that its request for a delay in introduction only applies to products placed on the market before May 2012. All new products placed on the market after that date will comply.