WEEE Directive: European Parliament adopts amendments

On 9 November 2023, the European Parliament adopted amendments to the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive.

The amendment regarding photovoltaic (PV) panels became necessary after the Court of Justice of the European Union, in its judgment 181/20, partially annulled Article 13(1) on the grounds of unjustified retroactivity.

The reason was the Article required producers of PV panels to finance the costs of managing the waste from these panels, even if they had been placed on the market before the provision entered into force.

Since then, the trilogue negotiations have progressed and the Council and Parliament have reached an agreement. The Parliament and Council positions were closely aligned to start with, with near identical amendments, which sought to add more clarity or precision to the Commission text.

The final draft compromise text gives the Commission the mandate to carry out an impact assessment on the following:

• provisions which specifically ensure that the principle of legal certainty is adhered to and that there is no provision that could entail unjustified retroactive effect in any Member State
• provisions to ensure the implementation of the waste hierarchy as laid down in Article 4 of Directive 2008/98/EC
• provisions to ensure that citizens and consumers are not burdened with disproportionate costs, in line with the polluter pays principle
• provisions ensuring full implementation and enforcement of this Directive, in particular with regard to adequate collection targets, as well as preventing illegal trade of WEEE
• creating a new ‘photovoltaic panels’ category under this Directive with the aim to disassociate PV panels from the existing EEE category 4, ‘large equipment’, as referred to in Annexes III and IV, and calculating the collection targets on the basis of waste PV panels available for collection based on their projected lifetime, rather than on the quantity of products placed on the market, and
• establishing a mechanism to ensure that in case of failure or liquidation of the producer, the future costs of collection, treatment, recovery and environmentally sound disposal of waste from PV panels from both private households and users other than private households will be covered financially

Furthermore, with the agreed compromise amendments, the European Commission shall assess the need for a revision of the WEEE Directive and present a legislative proposal no later than 31 December 2026.

Landbell Group company, European Recycling Platform (ERP), in its position paper from April 2023, also called for a new “photovoltaic panels” category, removing PV panels from the current category 4 (large equipment), as well as collection targets to be calculated based on waste PV panels available for collection, and a sufficient and secure financial mechanism for future PV panel waste obligations. All ERP comments were taken on board by the institutions with the above mandate to the Commission.

As the trilogue negotiations have already reached a final compromise text, an adoption of the case file is now likely before the European elections.

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