The Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) adopted on Thursday, with 74 votes in favour, 8 against and 5 abstentions, its position on proposed rules to govern the entire battery product life cycle, from design to end-of-life. Rapporteur Simona BONAFÈ (S&D, IT), explaines that the report includes the possibility for any citizen to remove these batteries on their own and also having batteries that are more accessible to consumers. She also stressed that the EP added an ad hoc category: “Light Means of Transport” (batteries used for electric cars and also for mopeds, scooters) for these forms of batteries that will be increasingly used and available on the market.

Brussels

statement

Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety

circular economy (T)

BONAFÈ, Simona (S&D, IT)

European Green Deal (T)

Regulation concerning batteries and waste batteries: statement by Simona BONAFÈ (S&D, IT), rapporteur

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/11661367/1644499299804_I217868Chapters%5BSD-EN%5D.srt

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Simona BONAF&Egrave; (S&amp;D, IT) I am very happy with this strong majority because it is a sign that Parliament believes a lot in this file, and so now I hope that I will discuss it, as soon as possible, with the Council and have this approved. It is a very important measure for our businesses and for our citizens because it is a file related to batteries which today have a fundamental use in our daily lives.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Simona BONAF&Egrave; (S&amp;D, IT) We asked for the batteries to last longer, that there is the possibility for any citizen to remove these batteries on their own and also the possibility of having batteries that are more accessible to consumers. It's important because today we use batteries everywhere : the toothbrush we use in the morning, the cell phone rather than the cars we move with. In the past year, more electric cars have been sold than diesel cars, this is an indicator that we have to go in that direction and the Parliament has accepted this signal.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Simona BONAF&Egrave; (S&amp;D, IT) We hope that there will be no price increase. We know that Europe is poor in the raw materials used to make batteries, which is why we have asked for higher recycling rates so that batteries are increasingly recycled. The goal is to create large gigafactories. This will also set in motion an economy in our Europe that we know is precisely poor in raw materials including producing batteries.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Simona BONAF&Egrave; (S&amp;D, IT) We have included a new category, the &ldquo;Light Means of Transport&rdquo;, because we know that today batteries are used for electric cars and also for mopeds, scooters. And so we want to create an "ad hoc category" for these forms of batteries that will be increasingly used and increasingly available on the market.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Simona BONAF&Egrave; (S&amp;D, IT) We saw what happened with photovoltaic panels that were not produced in Europe but in other countries, in China for example. With batteries, we don't want to make the same mistake because we know that we would need them so much in the future to support electric mobility. But we also know that we will not be able to produce them. So we should more focus on recycling and be more competitive on batteries. Otherwise, I repeat, we would make the same mistake we made in the past with photovoltaic panels and we will not keep the value chains in Europe and we would lose even economic possibilities.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Simona BONAFÈ (S&D, IT) The legislation we are going to work on is very important because it provides for a due diligence of the batteries, that is: We want to know the whole life of the batteries, if the use is involved of child labor rather than the use of the limited resources of the planet and sanctioning mechanisms of these will be provided for in this exploitation both at work and on the environment.