Delay for update to Machinery Directive

The revised version of the Machinery Directive is not likely to be introduced before 2009.

The objectives of the Machinery Directive are to protect the safety of people and to prevent the sale and the usage of unsafe machines within the European Union.

As technology changes over time, the directive needs to be adjusted to ensure that the original objectives continue to be achieved.

Therefore, the European Commission overhauled the Machinery Directive in 2001 and submitted the draft proposal to the European Council for review.

The proposal tries to improve the experienced post-implementation insufficiencies by refining the definition of "machinery".

It also emphasises clarification and simplification with effect on existing arrangements, and is likely to eliminate the overlaps between the Low Voltage Directive and the Machinery Directive.

It also introduces a voluntary quality assurance system, the establishment of procedures to remove deficient standards and the liberalisation of the conformity assessment procedures for Annex IV products.

The overhauled Machinery Directive will especially help manufacturers or those involved in CE Marking for the first time by clarifying responsibilities.

The "person" responsible for complying with the Machinery Directive is the manufacturer or the manufacturer's authorised representative within the EU.

If there is no authorised representative or if the authorised representative does not supply the respective machine, the first supplier in the EU must ensure compliance with the directive.

Due to the extremely time consuming process from the development of a directive to its publication in the European Official Journal and its final implementation into national legislation, the revised version of the Machinery Directive is not likely to be introduced before 2009.

The accession of ten additional countries to the EU further may further slow down the already slow process, as every member state requires a translation and has to agree to the directive requirements.

The European Council and the European Parliament will then approve the newly developed directive which may also lead to further delays.

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