EUROBAT position paper on the EC’s standardisation request on ‎batteries (COM2020-640 final – EU Green Deal)‎

EUROBAT calls for cooperation between Standardisation bodies and the European Commission to reach a common understanding on the draft Standardisation request on batteries (SReq)

The CEN/CENELEC Technical Board agreed and raised awareness among the Member States representatives in the Committee on Standards (CoS) and asked them to postpone the vote for adopting the draft SReq, which was initially scheduled on 12 February 2021. The Member States followed their advice and the vote ended up without results, which means that the current draft SReq has not been accepted for the time being.

CEN/CENELEC asked to postpone the voting because the current draft SReq should include relevant definitions to align with the definitions of the draft battery regulation proposal. As this work is not finished yet the current draft was not accepted, however EUROBAT sincerely hopes that the EC will come back with a new and better draft SReq which would take into account the concerns of the ‘SRAHG Batteries’ industry experts.

That the Commission would recourse to alternative common technical specifications, as laid down in Art 16 of the draft Batteries Regulation would not guarantee the same level of stakeholders participation, openness, transparency as when using the CEN/CENELEC framework to develop European standards. Therefore, it would be a step down to look for alternative or complementary technical specifications simply because European Standardization Organizations (ESOs) and the Commission temporary fail to find a common understanding on a standardization request.

The search for technical solutions should be found in the CEN/CENELEC framework. Industry experts from different TCs (CEN TC 301, CLC TC 9X, 21X, 22X , 69X , SR 35 , SR 120 ....) share the same concerns and would like to cooperate with the European Commission, aiming to reach a common understanding on the draft standardization request before it is adopted by the Commission.

EUROBAT is the association for the European manufacturers automotive, industrial and energy storage batteries. EUROBAT has more than 50 members from across the continent comprising more than 90% of the automotive and industrial battery industry in Europe. The members and staff work with all stakeholders, such as battery users, governmental organisations and media, to develop new battery solutions in areas of hybrid and electro-mobility as well as grid flexibility and renewable energy storage.