The European Union is reviewing its WEEE and RoHS legislation. This page contains a summary of the most important aspects of that review, as well as a time line and links to key documents. It is intended to provide U.S. companies with the information and the context necessary to be able to contribute to the review process.
The WEEE and RoHS reviews may be undertaken together or separately. It had been hoped that the two pieces of legislation could be amended simultaneously, but the WEEE review is somewhat further advanced than the RoHS review.
Please note that the European Commission is the institution responsible for preparing legislative proposals, including those amending existing legislation. The Commission's Directorate-General for the Environment (DG ENVI) is in the lead, but is working closely with the Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industry (DG ENTR). The Commission is committed to making proposals by the end of 2008.
Wherever reference is made to research studies or reports, whether drafted by the Commission itself or by outside consultants, it is important to note that these reports will be used by the Commission to help inform an internal discussion on the review of the two Directives. The reports don't bind the Commission in any way. Moreover, it is important to note that the Commission's proposals will be debated and amended in a political legislative procedure by the European Parliament and EU Member State governments. Those institutions are not bound by the findings, conclusions, or recommendations of the reports either.
WEEE Review
Overview
The European Commission set out the main milestones on the review of the WEEE Directive in a summary document available on its WEEE & RoHS pages. The review is focusing on four areas: scope, collection and recycling targets (for Member States), treatment requirements, and a range of producer responsibility provisions including rules on distance selling, the definition of "put on the market", national producer registers, financing obligations, and labeling requirements.
The first step in reviewing the WEEE Directive was the publication of a report by the European Commission's research institution , the Joint Research Centre (JRC), in early 2006. This looked at regulatory and management approaches around the world, the main benefits and problems of the EU's WEEE Directive, and opportunities for harmonization and improvement.
Information Gathering Exercise
The European Commission launched an "information gathering exercise" in mid-2006. The closing date for this was August 11th 2006, but the Commission is open to receiving input at any time. Input provided outside the deadlines is harder to take into account. The contributions that were made by various stakeholders can be accessed here.
Research Studies
UNU Study on Impact of WEEE
The Institute of
Environment and Human Security of the United Nations University
(UNU-EHS) has carried out a study for the European Commission
on the "impacts, efficacy, and efficiency of the WEEE Directive
from an environmental and economic, and as far as possible, a
social perspective". Work on this report was informed in part by
an invitation-only workshop held in Brussels in March 2007. All
the documents relating to this workshop are available here. The report, finalized in August 2007 is
available here, and annexes are available here.
Ökopol Study on Producer Responsibility
The Institut für Ökologie und Politik GmbH
(Ökopol) carried out a study concentrating specifically on
the producer responsibility provisions of the Directive. This was
also finalized in August 2007 and is available here.
Ecolas/RPA Study on Impact of WEEE
The European Commission’s Directorate General (DG) for Enterprise
has employed consultancies Ecolas and Risk & Policy
Analysts to carry out a study on the environmental and
economic impacts of the WEEE and RoHS Directives. The WEEE
component examines some of the structural aspects of the economic
systems that are developing in response to the WEEE Directive. It
has been drafted partly on the basis of input from industry,
although this has been fairly limited. The study is
available on DG ENTR’s web site here.
Impact Assessment
We believe the Commission to be working on an Impact Assessment on specific options for the revision of the WEEE Directive, that is likely to be be completed in the first quarter of 2008.
Public Consultation
The European Commission's final public consultation on options for the review of the WEEE Directive closed on June 5th, 2008. The consultation document is available here. It addresses issues related to legal basis for the Directive, scope, targets, and producer responsibility provisions such as registration modalities. Stakeholder submissions are available here.
Legislative Proposal & Legislative Procedure
We believe the European Commission intends to publish draft legislative proposals in September or October 2008. The full legislative procedure (known as a "co-decision" procedure and involving primarily the European Parliament and Member State governments) would probably begin in Q4 2008. Such legislative proceudres normally last at least one year (so at least until late 2009). In this case there will be pressure for the procedure to be completed before the end of the 2004-2009 parliamentary term, with European elections scheduled in May 2009. Normally Member States are given a further 12-18 months to transpose EU legislation into national law (end of 2010), and many provisions may not come into force for a period of time after that. It must be emphasized that this timing prediction is speculative.
RoHS Review
Overview & 1st Public Consultation
The European Commission set out its plans for a review of the RoHS Directive, including its needs in terms of stakeholder input, in a document published on its web pages and available here. The key areas for evaluation will be product scope, substance scope, definitions, enforcement, and exemptions. Contributions by stakeholders to this initial consultation are available here and the European Commission's own summary of these contributions is available here.
Research Studies
Categories 8 & 9 Inclusion Study
The first study to be carried out in the context of the review of
the RoHS Directive focused on the possibility of inclusion of
WEEE Categories 8 & 9 (medical devices & monitoring and
control instruments). Click here for the report, carried out for the
European Commission by ERA Technology.
The following documents are Test and Measurement Coalition
submissions to the EU on the possible inclusion of monitoring and
control instruments (Category 9) in the scope of RoHS. The
T&M Coalition is a group of companies with a large share of
the T&M equipment market in Europe. These documents are
provided for information purposes only and do not constitute the
position of the Department of Commerce or the US
Government.
Cadmium Dossier (41KB)
Hexavalent Chromium (896KB)
Lead Abstract Dossier (24KB)
Lead Shielding Dossier
(270KB)
Lead in Solder (1138KB)
Mercury Dossier (44KB)
RoHS Scope Review of
Category 9 Products (843KB)
Vertical PBB/PBDE Dossier
(112KB)
For further information, please contact the T&M Coalition
secretariat:
Tel: +32 2 505 6036
email: meglena.mihova@eppa.com
Costs Of Implementation and Competitiveness Impacts
The European Commission’s Directorate General (DG) for Enterprise
has employed consultancies Ecolas and Risk & Policy
Analysts to carry out a study on the costs of implementation
and the competitiveness impacts of the WEEE and RoHS Directives.
The RoHS component of the report contains in-depth analysis of
the environmental and economic impacts of the Directive. It has
been drafted partly on the basis of input from industry, although
this has been fairly limited. The study is available on DG
ENTR’s web site here.
Dangerous Substances Not Covered By RoHS
The European Commission has appointed consultancy Öko-Institut to carry out a study on dangerous
substances not currently included in the RoHS Directive,
including recommendations on whether one or more should be
included, and how the RoHS Directive and REACH chemicals rules
will relate to each other. Öko-Institut issued an open call for
input from industry about the use of hazardous substances in EEE
in December 2007. This call was set out in the following
documents:
Cover
Letter
Components Structure Table
Component Composition Table
List of Hazardous Substances
The call was extended in early 2008 due to lack of responses from
industry, and closed on April 1st.
The Öko-Institut held a technical experts' workshop in Brussels on May 6th, 2008, at which it presented its draft report on possible inclusion of new substances in RoHS. It appears likely that it will recommend the inclusion of one or more substances. This does not prejudice the European Commission's decision on what to put in its legislative proposals for the review. For the full draft report, click here. For a powerpoint summary of the report, click here.
The final report was submitted to the Commission in June 2008. It is not yet clear if or when the report will be published.
For more information on REACH, please see our REACH pages. For the specifications of the RoHS study on other substances, click here. For further information on this study, including contact with the contractor, click here.
Existing RoHS Exemptions
Öko-Institut has also been retained to carry
out a study on all existing RoHS exemptions, with a view to
assessing the feasibility of repealing exemptions thanks to
scientific and technical progress towards viable substitutes for
the banned substances. The specifications for this study are
available here. Öko-Institut has now issued an open call
for input from industry about existing RoHS exemptions plus three
new exemption requests. For contact with the contractor and more
information on the study and the consultation, click
here.
Öko-Institut hosted a series of technical stakeholder workshops on some of the existing exemptions in Brussels, from June 9th-13th.
The dates for the various workshops are:
Exemption 13 "Lead and cadmium in optical and filter glass": 9
June; 15:30 - 17:30
Exemptions 1-4 "Use of mercury in lamps": 10 June; 09:00 -
12:30
Exemptions 16-19 + 26 "Use of lead in lamps": 10 June; 14:30 -
17:30
Exemptions 20 and 25 "PbO in LCD, PDP and SED": 11 June; 09:00 -
11:30
Exemption 5 "Lead in glass of CRT": 11 June; 12:00 - 13:30
Exemption 8 "Cadmium as contact material": 11 June; 15:30 -
17:30
Exemptions 7a-c "Lead in solders": 12 June; 09:00 - 12:30
Exemption 6 "Lead in steel, aluminum and copper": 12 June; 14:30
- 16:30
NB Exemption 9a "DecaBDE": 13 June; 09:00 - 12:30
cancelled
The technical stakeholder workshop on exemption 9a (Deca-BDE) to be held on June 13th, 2008, in Brussels, was cancelled. It now appears unlikely that the European Commission will propose a new exemption for Deca-BDE.
Note that it is not clear whether the review of exemptions will be wrapped up into the legislative review of the RoHS Directive; it may be done separately through the existing exemptions procedure.
2nd Public Consultation
The European Commission held a second public consultation on the revision of the RoHS Directive that closed on February 13th, 2008. Full details are available here. All stakeholder input to the consultation that was received by the Commission is available here, unless it was marked as confidential. When the page opens, click on "Library" at the top to access the list of documents and open the folder called "2nd consultation on RoHS review" or click here. Please make sure you are looking at the correct page; the site also contains responses to the first RoHS consultation, dating back to 2007.
Legislative Proposal & Legislative Procedure
We believe the European Commission intends to publish lfinal egislative proposals in September or October 2008. The full legislative procedure (known as a "co-decision" procedure and involving primarily the European Parliament and Member State governments) would probably begin in the 4th quarter of 2008. Such legislative proceudres normally last at least one year (so at least until Q2 of 2009). In this case there will be pressure for the procedure to be completed before the end of the 2004-2009 parliamentary term, with European elections scheduled in May 2009. Normally Member States are given a further 12-18 months to transpose EU legislation into national law (end of 2010), and many provisions may not come into force for a period of time after that. It must be emphasized that this timing prediction is speculative.
Time Line
Click here for a time line showing the major 2008 milestones in the WEEE and RoHS reviews, plus some other key dates such as meetings of the EU's RoHS Technical Adaptation Committee (TAC). This committee manages various aspects of the implementation of both WEEE and RoHS, including RoHS exemptions.
Please note that this document is in no way authoritative or official; it is meant as a guide only and reflects our (sometimes imperfect) understanding of the situation. The Department of Commerce cannot be held responsible for any innacuracies.
Stakeholder Input
The Department of Commerce encourages U.S. companies to send input on the revisions of the WEEE and RoHS Directives. This can be done in the following ways:
- Send information or positions directly to the European Commission in response to a specific consultation. Please check the dates and try to meet deadlines. Input that does not meet deadlines is usually accepted but may not be taken into account. For relevant contact details, see the consultation documents.
- Send information to consultants carrying our studies or drafting reports for the European Commission. Please try to make sure you take the time frame of the studies into account. Contact details of the contractors are usually available on the relevant pages of the Commission web site or the contractor's own pages.
- Work via your trade association. Several major U.S. trade associations are working actively on the WEEE & RoHS revisions. Check with your trade association.
- Send information to Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) and national governments of EU Member States in the context of the legislative procedures. Timing is critical here, so make sure you are contacting the right institution at the right time. Note that once the legislative procedure is launched, the European Commission's role in the process is very limited.
We are always interested to receive information from U.S. companies, and to see what U.S. companies are sending to the EU institutions. If you wish to copy us on such correspondence, please use the following email address: Brussels.EC.Office.Box@mail.doc.gov
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