Opinion of the German Federal Environment Agency (UBA) concerning the proposal by the European Commission of 3 December 2008 for the revision of Directive 2002/95/EC | Umweltbundesamt

It is the purpose of Directive 2002/95/EC on the restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment (RoHS Directive) to regulate the exclusion of certain harmful substances from being used in electrical and electronic equipment (EEE). On 3 December 2008, the European Commission presented a proposal for the revision of the RoHS Directive and initiated the regulatory procedure. The proposal contains extensive changes to the Directive. These refer to scope, definitions, mechanisms for including new substances and mechanisms for defining exemptions, as well as conformity assessment. In the present opinion, UBA has evaluated the essential modifications proposed by the Commission and performed an analysis of the links to the ⁠REACH⁠ chemicals regulation.