It had been in the works for a while, but now it has formally been adopted. From the article:
The regulation provides that by 2027 portable batteries incorporated into appliances should be removable and replaceable by the end-user, leaving sufficient time for operators to adapt the design of their products to this requirement.
Is it possible, by having a removable battery, our phone won’t be as water resistant as it is now? I love that my phone is water resistant. I have a couple of water related accidents of my phone for at least two times. One happened on a not water resistant device. If I can choose between removable battery and water resistance, I’d choose water resistance all the time. I am changing my phone every 2 years anyway.
There are, and always has been, waterproof devices with replaceable batteries. Phone manufacturers love that they can lie and say that a removable battery affects waterproofing. By making the battery hard to remove, and some other tricks, they make the phone less repairable. They then can convince consumers that they need to replace their phone every 18-24 months.
The only reason to replace your phone every two years is that you want the new shiny. All other reasons are artificial, marketing garbage created by manufactures who profit off of creating e-waste.