Unified charger for all mobile devices in Europe
The European Parliament traces the route for a common charger
In order to cut costs and waste, all mobile phone manufacturers will need to offer a unified battery charger, decided the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers on Thursday. The decision leaves the manufacturers a few years to react, since it will take time to be implemented. However, this is an important decision which will allow consumers to use one charger for all devices, regardless of the manufacturer.
The new directive is just a part of the whole agreement for radio equipment, car doors, modems, cellphones and other electronic products. The European Parliament has been discussing the matter since September 2013 and now the common battery charger for smartphones looks a step closer to reality. According to the directive, the future charger will be based on the microUSB standard.
The implementation of the directive in the EU would reduce the waste and lower the incompatible chargers produced by different manufacturers. The EU Parliament has also decided a better market surveillance will be performed in accordance with the new rules. The Member countries will have the responsibility to monitor the market and report to the Commission. Furthermore, the new products will need to be registered in order to be launched on the market.
In addition to the common charger, the manufacturers will provide less paper with the products – the paper variant of declaration of conformity will be removed, replaced by a simple web link to the full declaration.
The EU countries have two years to implement the rules and adjust their national laws in accordance with the directive. The manufacturers will have an additional year to comply. All Member countries will need to formally adopt the directive before the main vote in March in the Commission.
Source: European Parliament
