On 1st of October 2024, the Ministry of Economy, Tourism and Sport published the following news on the gov.si website:
“The regulation will implement the European Regulation 2023/1542/EU, which represents alignment with the EU’s environmental goals and initiatives for the European Green Deal and circular economy. The Regulation determines the obligations of the manufacturer, producer, importer and distributor of batteries and products containing batteries. It sets out compliance requirements, competent authorities for implementation and control, and penalties for non-compliance.
The government adopted the Regulation on the implementation of the Regulation (EU) on batteries and waste batteries. The regulation will enable the implementation of the European Regulation (EU) number 2023/1542 on batteries and waste batteries. The objectives of the European regulation are to strengthen the functioning of the internal market, promote a circular economy and reduce environmental and social impacts in all stages of the battery’s life cycle. This takes into account the green transition, electric mobility, carbon neutrality and sustainable battery production. It includes products, processes, waste batteries and recycled secondary raw materials or materials.
More extensive use of batteries for general use, industrial batteries and batteries for electric vehicles is expected. The purpose of the European regulation is to improve the safety and functioning of the internal battery market and to ensure fairer competition through safety, sustainability and labeling requirements. The regulation applies to all batteries, including all waste portable batteries, electric vehicle batteries, industrial batteries, battery storage systems, starter batteries (mainly used for starting, lighting and ignition of vehicles and machinery) and light vehicle batteries (e.g. electric bicycles, e-mopeds, electric scooters).
It defines the obligations of the manufacturer, producer, importer and distributor of batteries and products containing batteries. It also sets out compliance requirements and the compliance assessment process. It also includes the control of batteries on the market, in use and the control of the handling of waste batteries.
The regulation defines two competent authorities for the implementation of the European regulation. The Ministry of the Economy, Tourism and Sports is responsible for the part that relates to placing batteries on the market, and the Ministry of the Environment, Climate and Energy for the part that relates to the handling of waste batteries.
Competent authorities for the control of batteries are also determined. The Market Inspectorate of the Republic of Slovenia will supervise the part that relates to putting batteries on the market and making them available on the market. Control of substances whose content in batteries is limited is carried out by the Chemicals Office of the Republic of Slovenia, the Chemicals Inspection. In the part that refers to batteries installed in vehicles and light vehicles, where it concerns homologated hybrid and electric vehicles of category L and homologated hybrid and electric vehicles of categories M, N, O, the inspectorate responsible for vehicles will carry out the control of stationary battery systems for energy storage in use will be carried out by the inspectorate responsible for energy. Control over the handling of waste batteries will be carried out by the inspectorate responsible for the environment, except for Article 72 of Regulation 2023/1542/EU (waste shipments), where the competent authorities for carrying out control are the inspectorate responsible for the environment, the Financial Administration of the Republic of Slovenia and the Police. The regulation also provides penalties for non-compliance with the provisions of the regulation.”
