Community news|22/04/20

Proposals for the revision of the Machinery Directive

Home > The news of EUROGIP and occupational risks in Europe > Proposals for the revision of the Machinery Directive

Member States have shown a real willingness to correct and improve European regulations on machinery. This was revealed in the 2019 public inquiry report. And Member States have sent proposals to this effect directly to the European Commission.

The impact assessment of the revision of the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC highlighted in particular the concern about the adequacy of this text with two major themes: man/robot collaboration and artificial intelligence (AI).

The proposals of the Member States sent directly to the European Commission to amend the Machinery Directive, which go well beyond the objectives proposed by the latter, concern :

  • taking better account of new technologies, in particular AI, robotics and software updates;
  • redefinition of the exclusions from the Machinery Directive, in particular by removing the exclusion from the High-pressure Equipment Directive, as well as equipment for amusement parks, and by specifying the exclusion of equipment for nuclear energy production industries;
  • the deletion of the concept of partly completed machinery, or the modification of its definition;
  • the revision of certain essential health and safety requirements, in particular the risk of radiation emissions, the chemical risk and the digitalisation of instruction manuals;
    revision of the list of machinery in Annex IV (extension of the list, recasting by risk, or deletion of Annex IV) and removal of the possibility of self-certification by the manufacturer in the event of application of a harmonised standard.

These proposals, as well as the economic impact for some of them, have been summarised by the European Commission. In some cases, Member States have proposed amendments on similar points but with different solutions. The Commission’s document provides an overview of the potential scenarios.

Find out more

Discover other news

Abroad

22/09/23

BELGIUM: what to expect from occupational illnesses in 2022

In 2022, around 38,500 people received compensation for permanent disability due to an occupational disease. And nearly 13,000 workers (private sector and provincial or local administrations, APL) filed a claim for compensation; 211 deaths were recognised, 73% of which were due to asbestos, 17% to silicosis and 10% to other diseases. These are the findings of the Fedris “Statistical Report on Occupational Diseases” 2022.

Abroad

22/09/23

FINLAND: the number of accidents at work rose in 2021

In 2021, more than 91,159 accidents at work occurred in Finland, around 4,500 more than in 2020. As in the previous year, construction workers (10,787), care and health service workers (9,367) and machine shop and foundry workers (7,162) were most affected.