Eddy

Well, what the heck, do they mean. Sounds not easy. The latest news I
heard is about a letter of some trade associations to Mrs. Walstroem,
the driving force in Brussels regarding WEEE and RoHS, with the request
of clarification. The answer was that it is not the duty of the European
commission to look into the deadline but the job of the member states
who have to implement the directive.
Here what I can say:

- Dates in the request sent to you: the 15th August 2004 is the date
where the EU-directive comes into force. 1st of July is the deadline
where all member states of the EU, not only Germany, will have to bring
the national legislation into force. The details of the legislation are
up to each individual country.

- Common sense of understanding so far is (to my knowledge) that the
limits stated now in the first draft of the EU commission to the EU
parliament may not be surpassed either by the entire electronic
equipment (easy to achieve) or by parts that can not be physically
separated anymore. For example the metallisation of a wire or its
insulation, the packaging of an IC, the PCB, the corrosion coating of a
cooling plate (Chrome) etc.

- By whom and how the RoHS compliance will be controlled is not clear
yet and can vary from state to state

If one starts working in detail with the two directives it becomes
apparent why Mrs Walstroem prefers not to go into the details.

Best regards

Guenter


EMPA
Swiss Federal Laboratories  for Materials Testing and Research
Centre for Reliability
Guenter Grossmann,  Senior Engineer

8600 Duebendorf
Switzerland

Phone: xx41 1 823 4279
Fax :     xx41 1 823 4054
mail:     [log in to unmask]

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