In a short video, Kinga Timaru-Kast highlights the strategic importance of strengthening recycling for Europe’s economy. She outlines immediate policy actions to support a sustainable and competitive EV recycling value chain, and frames these efforts within the longer-term perspective of the upcoming Circular Economy Act.

“Fostering a recycling ecosystem in the European e-mobility value chain is crucial for enhancing the region’s strategic autonomy. Currently, Europe relies heavily on third-country production and imports of critical materials and components essential for the production of electromobility solutions.

By creating conditions for a strong recycling ecosystem, Europe can reduce this dependency — ensuring a more resilient supply chain while also reducing emissions associated with the use of primary materials. Recycling also fosters innovation, as businesses invest in new technologies and processes, driving economic growth and creating future-oriented jobs.

With numerous legislative low-hanging fruits up for grabs, the EU can set today the conditions to support the development of a homegrown recycling industry. Regulatory stability is the bottom-line condition for establishing investments in the industry. Safeguarding the clear, long-term policies already agreed by co-legislators will provide the necessary certainty for businesses to innovate and to invest in recycling capacities.

Existing feedstock uncertainty is further increased through material leakage — when shipment rules to destinations outside the EU can be differently interpreted, and not ambitiously implemented and controlled at the Member State level.

Today’s challenges of European recyclers cannot be adequately tackled in the short term. We need to effectively use the toolkit of legislations already in the hands of European policymakers.

Our recommendations focus on optimizing existing legislations, such as:

• the Batteries Regulation,

• the Waste Shipment Regulation, and

• the proposed End-of-Life Vehicles (ELV) Regulation.

This can be achieved by making targeted improvements, providing clarifications where needed, and by ambitiously implementing and enforcing the requirements.

While defining our recommendations for the upcoming Circular Economy Act, we will continue highlighting the need to ensure that end-of-life EVs and batteries are treated and processed here in Europe. We need to create a sustainable loop for future EV and battery production on the continent.”