Get to Know the EBRA Board: Jan Tytgat, Chairman of EBRA
Jan Tytgat
As part of our new “Get to Know the EBRA Board” series, we are pleased to introduce Jan Tytgat, recently elected Chairman of EBRA and Senior Director Government Affairs at Umicore NV.
With decades of experience spanning chemistry, battery recycling, public affairs, and European industrial policy, Jan brings deep technical expertise and strategic insight to the EBRA Board at a pivotal time for the battery recycling sector.
Jan earned his PhD in Chemistry from the KU Leuven and has held a variety of managerial roles throughout his career at Umicore, including positions in laboratories, purchasing, and battery recycling operations. In 2012, he joined Umicore’s Government Affairs department, where he now leads engagement with EU institutions and public authorities on issues including battery materials, critical raw materials, sustainable mobility, energy, trade, and recycling policy.
Alongside his role within EBRA, Jan is also Vice-President of the Board of Recharge and serves on the steering committee of the International Congress for Battery Recycling. He previously chaired the Trade Committee of European Metals, representing the interests of non-ferrous metals producers and recyclers across Europe.
As Chairman, Jan will help guide EBRA through a period of rapid regulatory and industrial change, with increasing focus on battery circularity, recycling efficiency, critical raw materials recovery, and implementation of the EU Battery Regulation.
What motivated you to take on the role of Chairman of EBRA at this stage in the industry’s development?
What motivated me is the sense that we are at a defining moment for the European battery ecosystem. Over the past decade, we have moved from discussing circularity as an ambition to embedding it into regulation and industrial policy, most notably through the Battery Regulation.
At the same time, the recycling industry is scaling up rapidly under challenging economic and geopolitical conditions. This creates both urgency and opportunity. EBRA has a key role to play in ensuring that regulation translates into a functioning, competitive and sustainable end of life ecosystem.
I see the Chairman role as an opportunity to help bridge policy and industrial reality—ensuring that Europe not only sets the right framework, but also develops the industrial capacity to deliver on it.
How do you see the role of battery recycling evolving within Europe’s broader circular economy ambitions?
Battery recycling is moving from being a niche waste management activity to becoming a strategic industrial pillar of Europe’s circular economy.
It will play a crucial role in securing access to critical raw materials such as lithium, nickel and cobalt, thereby reducing Europe’s dependency on external supply chains. At the same time, it contributes directly to lowering the carbon footprint of batteries by enabling the reuse of materials within Europe.
Looking ahead, I see recycling increasingly integrated with the full battery value chain—from design and second life to manufacturing. This means that recyclers will not only process waste, but also become key suppliers of high quality secondary materials feeding back into European production.
What are in your view the biggest regulatory challenges and opportunities currently facing the battery recycling sector?
The main challenge is ensuring that the regulatory framework is implementable, coherent and supportive of industrial scaling.
The Battery Regulation is ambitious and rightly so, but its success will depend on how it is applied in practice. Issues such as collection targets, definitions of waste versus by products, and the calculation of recycling efficiencies need to be clarified and harmonised to avoid fragmentation across Member States.
At the same time, there is a major opportunity to align regulatory objectives with industrial development. If done correctly, the framework can create predictable conditions for investment, stimulate innovation in recycling technologies, and support the emergence of a strong European recycling industry.
More broadly, trade policy, state aid frameworks and critical raw materials policy will also play a decisive role in shaping the competitiveness of the sector.
What priorities would you like to focus on during your term as EBRA Chairman?
My priorities are centred around three key areas.
First, supporting the effective implementation of the Battery Regulation, ensuring that it is applied in a way that is practical, harmonised and conducive to investment.
Second, strengthening the European recycling ecosystem, not only from a regulatory perspective but also by supporting industrial development, collaboration and capacity building across the value chain.
Third, ensuring strategic coherence, by connecting battery recycling with broader EU policies on critical raw materials, energy transition and trade. Recycling should be recognised as a core enabler of Europe’s strategic autonomy.
Ultimately, the objective is to position EBRA as both a trusted policy partner and a driver of industrial progress in the transition to a circular battery value chain.