The European Parliament and the Council of the EU reached a provisional interinstitutional agreement on Thursday 15 December to strengthen the Regulation on machinery and equipment, in particular for risks related to the development of new digital technologies.
“After 18 months of work we have found an agreement on the revision of the Machinery Directive that will bring more safety for its users and predictability by harmonisation of EU markets for the machinery industry, especially SMEs”, welcomed rapporteur Ivan Štefanec (EPP, Slovakian).
Thus, the essential health and safety requirements have been strengthened as well as the modalities of compliance checks, albeit taking into account an approach proportionate to their potential risks - a point that was particularly discussed by Parliament and the EU Council (see EUROPE 13078/18).
For example, machines with “self-evolving behaviour” based on machine learning (listed in Annex I, Part A) must be subject to stricter conformity assessment procedures, which must be carried out by a third party. In the end, six categories of machines will be subject to mandatory third party conformity assessment. For other products (listed in Annex I, Part B), the manufacturer is allowed to carry out the conformity assessment itself. The Commission may update the list of products to be assessed by a conformity assessment body.
Furthermore - and this is particularly important for Parliament (see EUROPE 13066/4) - the consideration of SMEs has been strengthened in view of the possible administrative overload and additional costs generated. One of the discussions was also about digital versus paper documents. Here, Parliament won the case and ensured that the documentation provided by the manufacturer was exclusively digital.
Specifically, digital instructions will be the default option. However, paper instructions will remain an option at the time of purchase for customers who do not have access to a digital copy. In all cases, basic safety information should be provided with each product.
The scope has also been better defined, as has the terminology (see EUROPE 13066/4). Here, the co-legislators agreed not to exclude small vehicles used for personal transport and light electric vehicles such as electric scooters and electric bicycles, as they are widely used and could potentially be dangerous for their users.
The provisional agreement is expected to be presented by the EU Council Presidency at a next meeting of the Committee of Permanent Representatives I (Coreper I) in January 2023. After completion of the formal adoption stages, Member States will have 42 months to apply the rules of the Regulation. (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)