Eurobat, the association of European manufacturers of automotive and industrial batteries, welcomes the intention of the European Commission to propose a standardisation strategy for batteries.

The trade body representing over 50 companies across Europe says it’s good news the EC intends to support a “more assertive stance” on European interests in standardisation. It notes, however, that the EC should change Article 16 of the draft Batteries Regulation to recognise the “key role” of CEN/CENELEC (the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardisation).

This would avoid a conflict of attribution between standardisation committees and the Joint Research Centre, Eurobat argues in a statement on 27 May.

According to the proposed Batteries Regulation, the EC is planning to task the development of common specifications to the Joint Research Centre. These common specifications would replace standards if the relevant harmonised standards developed by CEN/CENELEC are not sufficient, Kallanish notes.

“This would mean a substantial deviation from the New Legislative Framework (NLF) and not ensure the same level of stakeholders’ participation, openness to all operators involved, and transparency as when using the CEN/CENELEC framework to develop European standards,” says Eurobat.

The association says specifications from the Joint Research Centre woudn’t have the same weight of CEN/CENELEC standards when it comes to developing international standards. This would potentially damage Europe’s influence on international standards, as well as the competitiveness of European products on the global market.

The Joint Research Centre is the EC’s science and knowledge service and the CENELEC is an independent facilitator between industry, consumers and regulators.