(1)

Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 of the European Parliament and of the Council (3) imposes battery due diligence obligations on economic operators that cover the sourcing, processing and trading of cobalt, natural graphite, lithium and nickel used for battery manufacturing. Those due diligence obligations are to be applied from 18 August 2025.

(2)

At a time when the geopolitical landscape continues to shift, various challenges need to be overcome, including as regards sourcing of raw materials. As a result, battery manufacturers need time to analyse and, where necessary, adjust their supply chains.

(3)

The battery due diligence obligations laid down in Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 include requirements covering third-party verification by notified bodies. However, the designation of such notified bodies is taking longer than expected. Due diligence schemes recognised by the Commission in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 would facilitate the work of economic operators and of notified bodies. However, due diligence schemes addressing raw materials present in batteries still need to be further developed and implemented, and subsequently go through the process of recognition of their equivalence by the Commission.

(4)

In order to provide sufficient time for the notification of conformity assessment bodies and to allow economic operators placing batteries on the market to be in a position to comply with their obligations, the date of application of the battery due diligence obligations laid down in Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 should be postponed by two years.

(5)

Directive (EU) 2024/1760 of the European Parliament and of the Council (4) lays down rules and obligations to ensure that companies identify and address actual and potential adverse human rights and environmental impacts in the company’s own operations, the operations of their subsidiaries and, where related to their chains of activities, the operations of their business partners.

(6)

The Commission is to publish, in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2023/1542, guidelines as regards the application of the battery due diligence requirements. Furthermore, the Commission is to make available, in accordance with Directive (EU) 2024/1760, guidelines as regards guidance and best practices on how to conduct due diligence. Since consistency between Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 and Directive (EU) 2024/1760 is important for companies in the battery supply chain, the respective dates for the publication and making available of those guidelines should be harmonised.

(7)

Since the objectives of this Regulation, namely to contribute to the efficient functioning of the internal market, while preventing and reducing the adverse impacts of batteries and waste batteries on the environment and ensure a high level of protection of human health, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States but can rather, by reason of scale or effects of the action, be better achieved at Union level, the Union may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union. In accordance with the principle of proportionality as set out in that Article, this Regulation does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve those objectives.

(8)

Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 should therefore be amended accordingly.

(9)

In view of the urgency of the matter and to provide legal certainty as soon as possible, it is considered to be appropriate to invoke the exception to the eight-week period provided for in Article 4 of Protocol No 1 on the role of national Parliaments in the European Union, annexed to the Treaty on European Union, to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and to the Treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community.

(10)

This Regulation should enter into force as a matter of urgency on the day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union,

(a)

in paragraph 1, the date ‘18 August 2025’ is replaced by ‘18 August 2027’;

(b)

in paragraph 5, the date ‘18 February 2025’ is replaced by ‘26 July 2026’.