The European Union's long-running plan to harmonize chargers for smartphones, and other devices, is reportedly set to be formally proposed and could become legislation.
against the need for a legally-mandated common charger standard, the EU is drafting legislation on the issue. The EU continues to maintain that a common standard would reduce electronic waste, while Apple says that switching to this new standard would create more e-waste.
According to Yahoo! Finance, a source familiar with the EU's plans says that legislation will be proposed in September. There are no further details, but the proposals will presumably follow the EU's previous recommendations.
In 2019, those included suggestions for different ways of achieving a common charger. It's possible that a manufacturer will be required to adopt a connector to make their charger compatible with others.
The EU's push to a common charger began around 13 years ago. At point, companies including Apple, signed a voluntary memorandum of understanding, agreeing to work on harmonizing chargers.
This failed to happen, so the EU believes that if companies won't make the move themselves, they will have to be required to.
Apple ceased shipping a power adapter with the iPhone in 2020. However, the issue for Apple is that it uses its own proprietary Lightning connector for iPhones, and the EU is more likely to recommend the USB-C, or USB 2.0 micro-B, commonly used by other vendors.