The European Parliament's Environment Committee Supports Amendments to the Hazardous Substances Directive. On July 11, 2017, the European Parliament's Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety formally supported the proposed amendments to Directive 2011/65/EU (RoHS 2). RoHS 2 restricts certain hazardous substances used in electrical and electronic equipment placed on the EU market. The European Parliament and the Council of the European Union announced on June 21 that they had reached an agreement on the amendments proposed by the European Commission, prompting the Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety to support the amendments. RoHS 2 sets upper limits on the levels of certain hazardous substances (such as mercury and lead) in electrical products, covering almost all electrical products except those explicitly stated to be exempt from the restrictions. RoHS 2 is a revised version of RoHS 1, expanding the product scope covered by RoHS 1 to include medical devices and monitoring and control instruments, and adding a new 11th category covering all other electrical and electronic equipment not specifically exempted by RoHS 1 or 2. For example, electric bicycles and electric lawnmowers fall under this "open category of electrical and electronic equipment." In addition to expanding the scope of regulated products, the RoHS 2 Directive also includes an eight-year transition period. During this period, products newly included in the regulated electrical and electronic equipment category can be placed on the EU market without complying with RoHS 2 regulations. However, the European Commission recently discovered that after the eight-year transition period, i.e., after July 22, 2019, the current scope of the RoHS 2 Directive will present some problems, thus requiring legislative intervention. On January 26, 2017, the European Commission proposed revising the provisions of the RoHS 2 Directive to avoid these problems. The first problem with the existing provisions of the RoHS 2 Directive is that newly included but non-compliant electrical and electronic equipment, even if placed on the market during the transition period, cannot be resold on the second-hand market after July 22, 2019. Prohibiting the resale of these products on the second-hand market will shorten their product lifecycle and generate more waste. To avoid this situation, the European Commission has proposed amendments to allow products placed on the market before July 22, 2019, to continue to be exempt from RoHS 2 (even if these products are resold on the secondary market after July 22, 2019). A second problem with the existing provisions of the RoHS 2 Directive is that after the transition period, non-compliant parts cannot be used to repair Category 11 electrical and electronic equipment placed on the market before July 22, 2019. This limits the possibility of product repair and thus shortens product lifecycles. Therefore, the European Commission proposes amendments to the provisions specifying that parts designed for products placed on the market before July 22, 2019, are exempt from RoHS 2. It must be noted that parts for other products not belonging to Category 11 (such as medical devices) are already exempt. The amended provisions specify the exemption period for all parts. For example, for Category 11 electrical and electronic equipment, the longest exemption period is until July 2029. The European Commission's recommendations also amended the procedures for applying for extensions of exemptions under the RoHS 2 Directive, such as removing the requirement that the Commission decide whether to extend the exemption six months before the deadline. The revised provisions allow market operators to continue to receive existing exemptions until the Commission makes a decision. This change aims to provide flexibility for the Commission, which had stated that assessing extension requests involved numerous steps, making it difficult to comply with the six-month requirement. The new revisions also include a requirement that the Commission must inform market operators of the anticipated duration of the decision-making process. Other proposed amendments to the directive include: pipe organs will be completely excluded from the RoHS 2 Directive because the industry has no substitute for the lead-based alloys used in their manufacture; and non-road machinery with electrical connections will also be exempt from the RoHS 2 Directive. The proposed amendments to the RoHS 2 Directive were reviewed by the permanent representatives of EU member states on June 28, 2017, and the Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety adopted the recommendations on July 11, 2017. However, the European Parliament will not adopt the final revised provisions until its plenary session in October. Once the final text is formally adopted, it will be published in the Official Gazette. Member States will then be required to incorporate the relevant amendments to the RoHS 2 Directive into their national laws within 18 months. This timeframe is longer than the 10-month period originally proposed by the European Commission. The proposed amendments are limited to addressing the most important issues of the RoHS 2 Directive. Therefore, the European Commission must conduct a comprehensive review of the RoHS 2 Directive by July 22, 2021, and subsequently submit legislative recommendations. It is estimated that future legislative recommendations may impose restrictions on the period during which newly included electrical and electronic equipment can be exempted from sale in the second-hand market. Source: Hong Kong Trade Development Council Trade Research (2017-07-28)
