Reference metadata describe statistical concepts and methodologies used for the collection and generation of data. They provide information on data quality and, since they are strongly content-oriented, assist users in interpreting the data. Reference metadata, unlike structural metadata, can be decoupled from the data.
The purpose of the collected data is to monitor compliance of countries with the quantitative targets for collection of batteries and accumulators that are set out in Article 10(2) and for recycling of batteries and accumulators that are set out in Article 12 (4) and in Annex III (Part B: Recycling) of the Directive.
The Battery Directive distinguishes between portable batteries and accumulators on the one hand and industrial and automotive batteries and accumulators on the other.
The collection target refers to portable batteries and accumulators and the recycling targets to all batteries and accumulators.
Further information on the policy need of data on batteries and accumulators can be found on the following website of Directorate General Environment (Batteries).
The collection target refers to portable batteries and accumulators.
The recycling targets refer to all batteries and accumulators and are broken down into the following three battery types:
lead-acid batteries and accumulators;
nickel-cadmium batteries and accumulators, and other batteries and accumulators.
3.3. Coverage - sector
The Directive applies to all types of batteries and accumulators, apart from those used in equipment to protect Member States' security or for military purposes, or in equipment designed to be sent into space.
3.4. Statistical concepts and definitions
The Battery Directive defines batteries and accumulators as follows:
‘battery’ or ‘accumulator’ means any source of electrical energy generated by direct conversion of chemical energy and consisting of one or more primary battery cells (non-rechargeable) or consisting of one or more secondary battery cells (rechargeable);
‘battery pack’ means any set of batteries or accumulators that are connected together and/or encapsulated within an outer casing so as to form a complete unit that the end-user is not intended to split up or open;
‘portable battery or accumulator’ means any battery, button cell, battery pack or accumulator that:
is sealed; and
can be hand-carried; and
is neither an industrial battery or accumulator nor an automotive battery or accumulator.
‘button cell’ means any small round portable battery or accumulator whose diameter is greater than its height and which is used for special purposes such as hearing aids, watches, small portable equipment and back-up power;
‘automotive battery or accumulator’ means any battery or accumulator used for automotive starter, lighting or ignition power;
‘industrial battery or accumulator’ means any battery or accumulator designed for exclusively industrial or professional uses or used in any type of electric vehicle.
Reporting is requested on the sales and collection of portable batteries and accumulators, and on the recycling of all batteries and accumulators.
With regard to recycling the Battery Directive differentiates the following three battery types:
lead-acid batteries and accumulators,
nickel-cadmium batteries and accumulators, and
other batteries and accumulators.
3.5. Statistical unit
Reporting units might be: producers, importers, exporters, distributors, enterprises, local units, establishments, etc.
Observation units are units of weight of batteries and accumulators.
3.6. Statistical population
All portable batteries and accumulators waste collected and all batteries and accumulators recycled per year. Excluded are equipment connected with the protection of Member States' essential security interests, arms, munitions and war material, with the exclusion of products that are not intended for specifically military purposes, and equipment designed to be sent into space.
3.7. Reference area
EU Member States and EEA/EFTA countries.
3.8. Coverage - Time
Data on batteries and accumulators is published for the years since 2009.
3.9. Base period
Not applicable.
Tonnes and percentage.
The reference period is the calendar year.
6.1. Institutional Mandate - legal acts and other agreements
Directive 2006/66/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 6 September 2006 on batteries and accumulators and waste batteries and accumulators and repealing Directive 91/157/EEC [See amending acts].
Member States are requested to submit data and methodology reports via EDAMIS related to the Battery Directive 2006/66/EC; Reporting of data is implemented by Commission Decision 2008/763/EC and Commission Regulation (EU) No 493/2012 by relevant deadlines (30 June), the information required is transmitted to the Commission on an annual basis within 6 months after the end of the period covered.
6.2. Institutional Mandate - data sharing
There is no data sharing with other international organisations; international organisations can use the data as published in the dissemination.
7.1. Confidentiality - policy
Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (recital 24 and Article 20(4)) of 11 March 2009 (OJ L 87, p. 164), stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society.
7.2. Confidentiality - data treatment
Not applicable, there are no confidential data in this dataset.
8.1. Release calendar
There is no release calendar, data dissemination is explained in item 9 below.
8.2. Release calendar access
Not applicable.
8.3. Release policy - user access
In line with the Union legal framework Eurostat disseminates statistics on Eurostat's website (see item 10 - 'Accessibility and clarity') respecting professional independence and in an objective, professional and transparent manner in which all users are treated equitably. The detailed arrangements are governed by the Eurostat protocol on impartial access to Eurostat data for users.
Data received by 30 of June, 6 months after the end of the reference period (T+6; where T = reference year), will be published two months later T+9). An update of the dataset is done in November (T+11) and March of the following year (T+15).
10.1. Dissemination format - News release
Not applicable.
10.2. Dissemination format - Publications
Statistics Explained article: under development.
10.3. Dissemination format - online database
Please consult free data on-line in the Eurostat dissemination database:
How to report Data for Directive 2006/66/EC and Commission Regulation 493/2012 on batteries and accumulators,
How to report your methodological report for Directive 2006/66/EC and Commission Regulation 493/2012 on batteries and accumulators,
Guidelines on the application of Commission Regulation 493/2012 on recycling efficiencies (DG ENV Document).
11.1. Quality assurance
The quality assurance is a joint responsibility of the Member States and Eurostat. The Member States conduct the data collection and describe their sources and methods in a quality report. Certain data format checks are carried out during the data entry into the webform. Eurostat carries out plausibility checks and comparability checks across countries. Observations will be discussed with the countries. The concepts, the classifications and the formats are clearly defined; the countries remain free to choose the sources and methods that fit them best.
11.2. Quality management - assessment
Medium
The overall accuracy is of medium level.
12.1. Relevance - User Needs
Main users are: the European Commission (for purposes of monitoring waste legislation), the Council, the European Parliament, researchers, politicians, general public, etc.
The purpose of the collected data is to monitor compliance of countries with the quantitative targets for collection of portable batteries and accumulators that are set out in Article 10(2) and for recycling of all batteries and accumulators that are set out in Article 12 (4) and in Annex III (Part B: Recycling) of the Directive 2006/66/EC on batteries and accumulators and waste batteries and accumulators.
12.2. Relevance - User Satisfaction
No systematic user satisfaction survey has been conducted. User satisfaction is discussed with the main user from the European Commission.
12.3. Completeness
Reporting is mandatory and the data sets are relative new and have a medium level of completeness.
13.1. Accuracy - overall
See 11.1.
13.2. Sampling error
Not applicable.
13.3. Non-sampling error
Not applicable.
14.1. Timeliness
Data submission by the countries is due 6 months after the end of the reporting period (30 June) on an annual basis (T+6).
14.2. Punctuality
Annual data has to be submitted 6 months after the reference period. Most countries do respect this deadline, some countries deliver with a small delay. In a few cases the delay is more than 2 months.
15.1. Comparability - geographical
The comparability across countries is good due to clear statistical concepts and definitions.
15.2. Comparability - over time
Reporting is mandatory, due to data gaps comparability over time is assumed to be good as of reference year 2009.
Every year Eurostat publishes the complete time series, which may lead to revisions of data previously published. Data are revised once in between annual releases.
17.2. Data revision - practice
Every year the questionnaire requests data for a given reference year. If data are revised by countries, it is done for the reference year.
Reported errors are assessed for seriousness to determine whether they should trigger a correction of already disseminated data. Reported errors may be corrected in the disseminated data but are usually revised once in between annual releases.
18.1. Source data
Member States follow different approaches. Article 12(1) of the Battery Directive 2006/66 requires the set-up of schemes for the collection, treatment and recycling of waste batteries and accumulators. Member states collect data from various sources such as:
Surveys,
National statistical institute,
Administrative sources such as municipalities, e.g.: waste management facilities, collective management schemes, reprocessing plants,
Ministries of Environment or Environment Agencies collect the data and provide the methodology report on waste batteries and accumulators.
Member States are transmitting data via webforms through EDAMIS.
18.4. Data validation
Data validation is done by Eurostat in close cooperation with Member States' competent Authorities.
Certain data format checks are carried out during the data entry into the webform. The validation routines at Eurostat include checks related to consistency, plausibility, development over time and clarification requests are sent to countries in case of observations.
Methodology reports from countries are consulted during the validation process. In case of revision of data the Member State transmit a new web-form.
18.5. Data compilation
The European aggregates are calculated by adding up the national waste amounts. EU aggregates are compiled when the available countries represent 60% of the population and 55% of the number of countries defining the aggregate; data for missing countries are estimated on the basis of the previous year.
The purpose of the collected data is to monitor compliance of countries with the quantitative targets for collection of batteries and accumulators that are set out in Article 10(2) and for recycling of batteries and accumulators that are set out in Article 12 (4) and in Annex III (Part B: Recycling) of the Directive.
The Battery Directive distinguishes between portable batteries and accumulators on the one hand and industrial and automotive batteries and accumulators on the other.
The collection target refers to portable batteries and accumulators and the recycling targets to all batteries and accumulators.
Further information on the policy need of data on batteries and accumulators can be found on the following website of Directorate General Environment (Batteries).
8 October 2024
The Battery Directive defines batteries and accumulators as follows:
‘battery’ or ‘accumulator’ means any source of electrical energy generated by direct conversion of chemical energy and consisting of one or more primary battery cells (non-rechargeable) or consisting of one or more secondary battery cells (rechargeable);
‘battery pack’ means any set of batteries or accumulators that are connected together and/or encapsulated within an outer casing so as to form a complete unit that the end-user is not intended to split up or open;
‘portable battery or accumulator’ means any battery, button cell, battery pack or accumulator that:
is sealed; and
can be hand-carried; and
is neither an industrial battery or accumulator nor an automotive battery or accumulator.
‘button cell’ means any small round portable battery or accumulator whose diameter is greater than its height and which is used for special purposes such as hearing aids, watches, small portable equipment and back-up power;
‘automotive battery or accumulator’ means any battery or accumulator used for automotive starter, lighting or ignition power;
‘industrial battery or accumulator’ means any battery or accumulator designed for exclusively industrial or professional uses or used in any type of electric vehicle.
Reporting is requested on the sales and collection of portable batteries and accumulators, and on the recycling of all batteries and accumulators.
With regard to recycling the Battery Directive differentiates the following three battery types:
lead-acid batteries and accumulators,
nickel-cadmium batteries and accumulators, and
other batteries and accumulators.
Reporting units might be: producers, importers, exporters, distributors, enterprises, local units, establishments, etc.
Observation units are units of weight of batteries and accumulators.
All portable batteries and accumulators waste collected and all batteries and accumulators recycled per year. Excluded are equipment connected with the protection of Member States' essential security interests, arms, munitions and war material, with the exclusion of products that are not intended for specifically military purposes, and equipment designed to be sent into space.
EU Member States and EEA/EFTA countries.
The reference period is the calendar year.
See 11.1.
Tonnes and percentage.
The European aggregates are calculated by adding up the national waste amounts. EU aggregates are compiled when the available countries represent 60% of the population and 55% of the number of countries defining the aggregate; data for missing countries are estimated on the basis of the previous year.
Member States follow different approaches. Article 12(1) of the Battery Directive 2006/66 requires the set-up of schemes for the collection, treatment and recycling of waste batteries and accumulators. Member states collect data from various sources such as:
Surveys,
National statistical institute,
Administrative sources such as municipalities, e.g.: waste management facilities, collective management schemes, reprocessing plants,
Data received by 30 of June, 6 months after the end of the reference period (T+6; where T = reference year), will be published two months later T+9). An update of the dataset is done in November (T+11) and March of the following year (T+15).
Data submission by the countries is due 6 months after the end of the reporting period (30 June) on an annual basis (T+6).
The comparability across countries is good due to clear statistical concepts and definitions.
Reporting is mandatory, due to data gaps comparability over time is assumed to be good as of reference year 2009.
