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] --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8e To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/contentpage.asp?Pageid=4.3.16 for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-615-7100 ext.2815 -----------------------------------------------------