A common charger should be developed for all mobile phones sold in the EU, to ‘reduce waste, costs and hassle for users’, said Members of European Parliament (MEPs) voting on an update to EU radio equipment laws on Thursday (13 March).

The draft revision of the Radio Equipment Directive was approved by 550 votes to 12 (with eight abstentions) last week, as MEPs worked to ‘harmonise’ rules for placing radio equipment, including mobile telephones, car-door openers and modems, on the market.

They suggested that this could be done by requiring electronic and electrical equipment manufacturers to develop a common charger for certain categories of radio equipment, in particular mobile phones, to ‘simplify their use’ and reduce ‘unnecessary waste and costs’.

Indeed, it has been suggested that by standardising mobile phone chargers by 2017, the EU could reduce the amount of waste electronic and electrical equipment (WEEE) arisings by 51,000 tonnes a year.

The text reads: ‘Interoperability between radio equipment and accessories such as chargers simplifies the use of radio equipment and reduces unnecessary waste and costs. A renewed effort to develop a common charger for particular categories or classes of radio equipment is necessary, in particular for the benefit of consumers and other end-users; this Directive should therefore include specific requirements in that area. In particular, mobile phones that are made available on the market should be compatible with a common charge.’

MEPs also backed provisions in the directive that would give the authorities additional market surveillance tools to detect radio equipment products that fail to comply with the new safety rules.

It was also suggested that some categories of equipment would need to be registered before they could be put on the market.

As this was the first reading of the text however, it will be down to the European Commission to decide which specific types of radio equipment will have to meet this requirement.

Rapporteur Barabara Weiler said: "The modernised Radio Equipment Directive is an efficient tool to prevent interference between different radio equipment devices. I am especially pleased that we agreed on the introduction of a common charger. This serves the interests both of consumers and the environment. It will put an end to charger clutter and 51,000 tonnes of electronic waste annually."

Once formally approved by the European Council (which has already reportedly informally agreed the draft law), member states will have two years to transpose the rules into their national laws and manufacturers will have an additional year to comply.

Watch a video of the plenary sitting on 13 March or read the draft law.