The European Union is reviewing its WEEE and RoHS legislation. Legislative proposals were published on December 3rd, 2008. 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 will initially be undertaken together.

RoHS Webinar: The second of a series of webinars for U.S. companies on the EU's proposed revisions to the WEEE & RoHS Directives, focusing on process and content. Date: February 12th, 2009. For details & registration, click here.

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 were 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. 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) 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 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 was drafted partly on the basis of input from industry, although this was fairly limited.  The study is available on DG ENTR’s web site here.

Impact Assessment

The Commission conducted an Impact Assessment on specific options for the revision of the WEEE Directive, which you can see here. A summary is available here.

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

The European Commission published its draft legislative proposal for a recast of the WEEE Directive on December 3rd, 2008. European Commission Q&A on the proposal can be found here. The key elements of the proposals are:

1. Clarification of the product scope;
2. Clarified definitions;
3. More ambitious but more flexible collection & recovery targets for EU countries;
4. Strengthened enforcement provisions;
5. A one-stop-shop approach to registration (register in one country for all EU sales).

It must be emphasized that this proposal will be the subject of intense political activity in Europe over the next year or two, and that the text provided will be significantly amended before adoption. There continue to be opportunities for industry to seek improvements to the legislation.

Legislative Procedure

The WEEE revision will be subject to a full legislative procedure (known as a "co-decision" procedure and involving primarily the European Parliament and Member State governments). This has formally already begun, but may not start in earnest until after the new European Parliament session begins in late August 2009 after the European elections in May. Such legislative proceudres normally last at least one year. Normally Member States are given a further 12-18 months to transpose EU legislation into national law, and many provisions may not come into force for a period of time after that. Our best guess at a date for when new provisions might come into force is 2012. But 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@N0SPAM.eppa.com

Costs Of Implementation and Competitiveness Impacts
The European Commission’s Directorate General (DG) for Enterprise 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 was drafted partly on the basis of input from industry, although this was fairly limited. The study is available on DG ENTR’s web site here.

Dangerous Substances Not Covered By RoHS
The European Commission 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. 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, 2008.

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. 

The review of exemptions will probably not be wrapped up into the legislative review of the RoHS Directive; it will 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

The European Commission published its draft legislative proposal for a recast of the RoHS Directive on December 3rd, 2008. European Commission Q&A on the proposal is available here. The key elements of the proposals are:

1. Clarification of the product scope;
2. Broadening of the product scope to include medical devices and monitoring and control instruments;
3. Clarified definitions;
4. No new substance bans (but Deca-BDE remains banned);
5. A list of substances "for priority review" with a view to possible bans, according to a procedure "based on" REACH methodology;
6. Introduction of a general socio-economic impact criterion for exemptions;
7. Introduction of more standardized procedures for exemption requests;
8. Introduction of a 4-year limit on exemptions;
9. Introduction of CE marking.

It must be emphasized that this proposal will be the subject of intense political activity in Europe over the next year or two, and that the text provided will be significantly amended before adoption. There continue to be opportunities for industry to seek improvements to the legislation.

Legislative Procedure

The WEEE revision will be subject to a full legislative procedure (known as a "co-decision" procedure and involving primarily the European Parliament and Member State governments). This has formally already begun, but may not start in earnest until after the new European Parliament session begins in late August 2009 after the European elections in May. Such legislative proceudres normally last at least one year. Normally Member States are given a further 12-18 months to transpose EU legislation into national law, and many provisions may not come into force for a period of time after that. Our best guess at a date for when new provisions might come into force is 2012. But it must be emphasized that this timing prediction is speculative.

Time Line 

An updated time line will be published here when the likely timings become clearer.

 

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:

1. Work via your trade association. Several major U.S. trade associations are working actively on the WEEE & RoHS revisions. Check with your trade association.
2. 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@N0SPAM.mail.doc.gov

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