Directive Decoder

Of all the recently adopted EU legislation, the Ecodesign of Energy using Products (EuP) Directive (2005/32/EC) is likely to have the most significant impact on the design engineer. This is a framework directive which means that it does not impose requirements on manufacturers (or their designers) but sets up a mechanism for introducing “implementing measures” that will impose specified design requirements. EuP has a very broad scope including any product that consumes, generates or controls energy (excludes transport).

The Restriction of use of certain Hazardous Substances (RoHS Directive 2002/95/EC) came into force on 1/7/06. This has already had an impact on design engineers involved with products that are within the eight categories of the WEEE directive that are the scope of RoHS. Currently RoHS is being reviewed and it is likely that the scope will broaden to include medical devices and monitoring and control instruments. The changes that have resulted from this directive are already influencing sectors of the electronics industry that are outside its scope with automotive and even aerospace seeing a trend towards the elimination of RoHS substances.

On Monday morning this week Greenpeace activists knocked on the door of the Ministry of Information Technology in New Delhi and presented them with a giant artwork of the globe in the clutches of hazardous electronic waste. This was to serve as a reminder of the enormity of the e-waste challenge.

I heard someone say that EU RoHS exemptions maybe abolished.
So I asked Dr Paul Goodman of ERA Technology, and expert on exemptions and someone who has carried out several reviews for the European Commission.
Basically, "wishful thinking" was his reply: