elni Review 2021, pp. 25-31. https://doi.org/10.46850/elni.2021.003

The draft of a European Regulation concerning batteries and waste batteries and repealing Battery Directive 2006/66/EC was published by the EU Commission in December 2020. From then on, there were ongoing intense discussions among lawmakers, member states and the affected industries. The draft’s life-cycle regulation is an unprecedented approach in European product law and raises many questions due to numerous technical, structural and content-related deficits that urgently need to be clarified before adoption. In order to ensure that the adoption of the revolutionary new requirements for batteries will become not only a political success but an actual contribution to a more sustainable and environment friendly life-cycle of batteries, critical voices should be heard and considered in the course of the ongoing discussions. Otherwise, the highly welcomed ambition to make the EU a leader in battery technology and electrified mobility might end in a regulatory landscape which prevents innovations and investments in the European battery sector.

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