Members of the EP Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) meet in Brussels to discuss the modernization of the EU's regulatory framework for batteries in order to secure the sustainability and competitiveness of battery value chains. Statement by Antonius MANDERS (EPP, NL), rapporteur and extracts of the meeting with Joaquim NUNES DE ALMEIDA, Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry of the European Commission, Adriana MALDONADO LÓPEZ (S&D, ES) and Claudia GAMON (Renew, AT),

Brussels

Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection

statement

meeting

waste of electrical and electronic equipment (T)

circular economy (T)

MANDERS, Antonius (EPP, NL)

GAMON, Claudia (Renew, AT)

MALDONADO LÓPEZ, Adriana (S&D, ES)

European Green Deal (T)

Regulation concerning batteries and waste batteries: extracts from the meeting of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection

Title: Regulation concerning batteries and waste batteries: extracts from the meeting of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) (I-203282)

SOUNDBITE (English), Antonius MANDERS (EPP, NL), Rapporteur , Within 10 years, we want to have the industrial leadership in the world for producing batteries, storing electricity, which we are producing during the day, but we can store that then in batteries when we need it, when we use it. And that's a huge project. And I'm very happy that the Commission is coming forward with this part of legislation which can make Europe stronger in the global economy.

SOUNDBITE (English), Antonius MANDERS (EPP, NL), Rapporteur , There is an end of using these raw materials. So we have to recycle the batteries and there is going to be a step by step narrowing and will make it more tough to recycle most of the raw materials of the batteries, that's good, because now we can buy at the moment for example in China our batteries, but if we can recycle them in Europe, we can re-use the raw materials.

Antonious MANDERS, (EPP, NL), Rapporteur: We are famous in Europe for producing cars in all member states countries. We are producing our own brands. That's a huge industry. It's a huge sector. If we can achieve with this regulation that we produce our own batteries for the future, for our own produced cars, that means more jobs in the car industry. We keep them, of course, and we can create jobs in the battery industry and we are less dependent on other countries in the world. That's good for our economy, that's good for our jobs, that's good for Europe. And by combining all the knowledge like did with Airbus, this is really a success story. I hope that this battery regulation will be a success story too. We have a special project for innovation on batteries. We call it EPSI, (European Platfrom for Sport Innovation. Europe is going to invest in coming years 100 billion Euro. And if we calculate that, that it will attract private investments , it will go up to 500 billion Euros at the end. And that's a huge investment for a completely new industry.

SOUNDBITE (English), Antonius MANDERS (EPP, NL), Rapporteur, We are talking about four million jobs a year, four million jobs. How can a Member state then say we are not interested in batteries? So I want to make them awayre, I want to make a wake up call. All the 26 member states should join this innovative project for batteries.

SOUNDBITE (English), NUNES DE ALMEIDA, Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry of the European Commission , Only a strong and well functioning EU market for batteries, waste batteries and secondary materials will make it possible to meet these ambitious goals. The proposal is a prototype for a new way of regulating products on a lifecycle basis and using the internal market regulatory framework to promote sustainability and achieve the European Green Deal objectives.

SOUNDBITE (Spanish), Adriana MALDONADO L&#211;PEZ (S&amp;D, ES), This is a new and excellent opportunity to regulate a fundamental sector, the sector of batteries, which is part of the internal market and it is in line with three objectives presented by the Commission: promoting a circular economy, reducing environmental impacts and above all, also strengthening the functioning of the internal market by guaranteeing a level playing field.

SOUNDBITE (English), Claudia GAMON (Renew, AT), We know from past legislation on recycling and waste that the implementation really varies very heavily between the Member states.So a harmonised framework for batteries will be a real cornerstone and a real turning point for the industry in Europe, that is why we want to support of this proposal.