Background

The EU Directive 2000/53/EC on end-of-life vehicles ("ELV" Directive) bans the use of certain substances in vehicles. According to Article 4(2)(a), “Member States shall ensure that materials and components of vehicles put on the market after 1 July 2003 do not contain lead, mercury, cadmium or hexavalent chromium other than in cases listed in Annex II under the conditions specified therein.” A limited number of applications exempted from the provision of this article are listed in Annex II to the Directive as well as the scope and the expiry date of the exemption and the labelling requirement according to Article 4(2)(b)(iv) (if applicable.

“Annex II shall be amended on a regular basis, according to technical and scientific progress, in order to:.

  1. as necessary, establish maximum concentration values up to which the existence of the substances referred to in subparagraph (a) in specific materials and components of vehicles shall be tolerated;
  2. exempt certain materials and components of vehicles from the provisions of subparagraph (a) if the use of these substances is unavoidable;
  3. delete materials and components of vehicles from Annex II if the use of these substances is avoidable;
  4. under points (1) and (2) designate those materials and components of vehicles that can be stripped before further treatment; they shall be labelled or made identifiable by other appropriate means.

Annex II to the Directive that has so far been adapted to scientific and technical progress ten times; the last amendment of Annex II to the Directive is dated 5 March 2020. Annex II also provides review dates in a number of exemptions.

All information regarding the previous evaluations is available here.