It’s a frustration everyone knows: your phone is dead, but your host’s charger doesn’t fit. That problem is now a thing of the past. Since this weekend, manufacturers are no longer allowed to sell phones that cannot charge without a USB-C charger. This is the result of fifteen years of struggle by Helmond Toine Manders, former European Parliamentarian.
Manders already raised the problem in 2009: “Telephones had not been around for very long, but even then it bothered me immensely that I had five different chargers that I could all only use for one thing and that I couldn’t use my phone anywhere. could otherwise charge when it was empty,” he says. Moreover, Manders already expected that telephones would play a major role in our lives and this issue would only become more important. “All those chargers lead to a huge mountain of waste,” he says.
“I understood the tech companies, it concerns millions.”
He urged the European Commission to make a standard charger mandatory. “The committee was still laughing about it in 2009,” Manders remembers. “These kinds of practical and technical solutions should not be a task for politicians. But I think it is. These kinds of things make daily life easier and are good for the environment.”
His proposal also met resistance from technology companies, such as Apple. “Apple resisted fiercely, and I understand that,” Manders explains. “They made hundreds of millions annually selling their own chargers to the European market.”
“The more I think about it, the prouder I become.”
Yet Manders persevered. He linked the standardization of the chargers to the European radio law. It states that all radio equipment in the EU must be able to work together, regardless of which country you are in. “Telephones are also a kind of radio: they transmit and receive,” says Manders. “This is how we managed to push the law through with the then European Commissioner.”
Because Apple did not agree, it took until 2022 before the law was passed. The industry was then given another two years to adapt to the law. “Those are now over, so from this weekend all new phones will have the same charger.”
So it took a long time, but Manders is happy that it worked. “It’s nice, now that my political career is over, to see that something I come up with has such an impact,” he says. In the background of the telephone conversation with Manders you can hear him getting into the car: “I bought a headset so I can make calls in the car, and now that I look at this, I see that it has a USB-C charger.” , he laughs. “The more I think about it, the more proud I become. I really leave something tangible behind as a politician.”
“We have to move on: to laptops, cars and garden tools.”
Yet the subject has not completely left him. “The new rules are not only useful, but also important for the future.” Manders knows that a law has been passed that further extends the standardization of chargers, for example to cars and garden tools. “Of course, this happens per category, it is not the case that you will soon be able to charge your hedge trimmer with the plug of your electric car.”
According to Manders, all this will become reality in 2035. “The industry has the opportunity to prepare for this.”
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