EU Taxonomy and RoHS Alignment Faces Two-Month Delay

On October 6, 2025, the European Parliament’s ECON and ENVI committees held a joint scrutiny session to review the Commission’s recent amendment to the EU Taxonomy Regulation. This amendment, originally proposed in July, seeks to align the Taxonomy’s "Do No Significant Harm" criteria with exemptions under the RoHS Directive (Annex III and IV).

Scrutiny period extended
Following the October session, Parliament and Commission representatives announced an extension of the scrutiny period by two months. The deadline for the Parliament or Council to potentially oppose the measure has now been pushed to January 5, 2026.
This delay impacts the final adoption of the amendment, which aims to resolve a critical compliance gap where products utilizing valid RoHS exemptions could technically fail Taxonomy sustainability criteria.

Strategic implications
The ongoing scrutiny highlights the complexity of harmonizing material compliance across different EU frameworks. The explicit linkage between RoHS exemptions and EU Taxonomy criteria confirms that regulatory alignment remains a priority, though definitions (e.g., "hazardous substances" vs. "substances of concern") continue to pose implementation challenges for industry substance management systems.

Further details regarding the legislative procedure can be found in the European Parliament's ENVI Committee newsletter.