Directive on the Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances in Electrical and Electronic Equipment (RoHS) – EU Implementation and background
RoHS Directive – EU Implementation, processes and background
Scope
The Directive applies primarily to those who manufacture Electrical and Electronic Equipment (EEE), those who import these goods into the EU; those who export these goods to other Member States; and those who re-brand equipment that has been produced by others.
The RoHS Directive draws its scope from the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive and applies to categories 1-7 and 10 that are listed under Annex 1A of the WEEE Directive, with the addition of electric light bulbs (lamps) and household luminaires. The eight categories covered by RoHS are:
1. Large household appliances
2. Small household appliances
3. IT & telecommunications equipment
4. Consumer equipment
5. Lighting equipment
6. Electrical & electronic tools
7. Toys, leisure & sports equipment
10. Automatic Dispensers
Exemptions
Article 5 of the RoHS Directive sets out the process for exemptions to be granted on the grounds that the use of alternative substances are either technically or scientifically impracticable.
Exemptions are for specific applications of the restricted substances and once agreed by qualified majority through a vote in the TAC, followed by publication of a Commission Decision in the EC’s Official Journal, apply to all uses of the substance in that application: there is no requirement to register particular products or those companies taking advantage of the exemption.
The European Commission has put each batch of exemption requests it receives out to public consultation and then contracted independent technical consultants to make recommendations. Details of those consultations are available from the Commission's website at http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/weee/events_rohs1_en.htm
All exemptions agreed can be found by looking at the Annex to the RoHS Directive and subsequent Commission Decisions amending the Annex. Copies of both the text of the Directive and all current Decisions can be found on the main RoHS page.
Categories 8 & 9
Two categories within Annex I of the WEEE Directive are currently excluded from the scope of the RoHS Directive. These are Category 8 (medical devices) and Category 9 (monitoring & control instruments). Article 6 of the RoHS Directive, however, places an obligation on the European Commission to review the possibility of bringing these two categories into scope at some future point. To that end, the Commission appointed independent technical consultants to conduct a study on whether it was feasible to include the two categories; this report has now been completed and can be downloaded from http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/weee/studies_rohs2_en.htm
The Commission invited stakeholders to propose additional topics that the review process should consider or additional elements that stakeholders considered relevant. That process is now complete and the Commission submitted proposals to The Council and European Parliament at the beginning of December 2008. These proposals can be downloaded from http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/weee/index_en.htm
Transposition in other Member States
A final report on other Member States’ preparations for WEEE and RoHS was published by the then DTI in November 2005.
Transposition of the WEEE and RoHS directives in other EU member states: November 2005 (PDF, 1338KB)
RoHS Technical Adaptation Committee
At EU level, the Technical Adaptation Committee (TAC), chaired by the European Commission and comprising of Member State representatives, considers follow up issues related to the RoHS Directive.
Unofficial BIS meeting notes can be downloaded from this page.
