Considerations on COM(2023)178 - Approval and market surveillance of non-road mobile machinery circulating on public roads

Please note

This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.

 
dossier COM(2023)178 - Approval and market surveillance of non-road mobile machinery circulating on public roads.
document COM(2023)178 EN
date December 19, 2024
 
table>(1)Self-propelled mobile machinery, falling within the scope of Directive 2006/42/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (3), that is designed or constructed with the purpose to perform work (‘non-road mobile machinery’), might need, whether occasionally or regularly, to circulate on public roads, mostly to move from one working place to another.
(2)This Regulation covers only self-propelled machinery. Towed machinery equipment is not covered by this Regulation because such equipment is normally towed by motor vehicles falling within the scope of Regulation (EU) 2018/858 of the European Parliament and of the Council (4). Such equipment should be covered by Regulation (EU) 2018/858, which regulates the type-approval of motor vehicles including their trailers. The Commission should address the need to establish, under Regulation (EU) 2018/858, detailed technical requirements relating to the road safety of the specific category of towed machinery equipment, insofar as such equipment is not subject to such requirements under the existing rules.

(3)Certain aspects of the design and construction of non-road mobile machinery are already covered by Union harmonisation legislation, in particular by Regulation (EU) 2016/1628 of the European Parliament and of the Council (5), Directive 2000/14/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (6), Directive 2006/42/EC, and Directives 2014/30/EU (7) and 2014/53/EU (8) of the European Parliament and of the Council.

(4)As regards the safety of mobile machinery, Directive 2006/42/EC is the main regulatory act applying to that machinery when placed on the market. It sets out essential health and safety requirements covering the off-road travelling functions of mobile machinery such as slowing down, stopping, braking, driving positions and restraint systems. However, the essential health and safety requirements set out in that Directive are only designed to address safety when the machinery is at work, and do not cover the safety aspects of that machinery when circulating on public roads.

(5)Due to the absence of harmonised rules on the road safety of non-road mobile machinery, economic operators that produce, or make available on the market, non-road mobile machinery face significant costs associated with differing regulatory requirements across the Members States. In addition, the road safety of that machinery is not ensured uniformly in the whole territory of the Union. Therefore, it is necessary to establish harmonised rules at Union level with respect to the road safety of non-road mobile machinery.

(6)For the purposes of the development and operation of the internal market, it is appropriate to establish a harmonised type-approval system and an individual approval system for the road safety of non-road mobile machinery intended to circulate on public roads.

(7)The objective of this Regulation is to address the risks associated with the intended circulation of non-road mobile machinery on public roads. Thus, non-road mobile machinery that, in practice, is not intended to circulate on public roads should be excluded from the scope of this Regulation.

(8)Since the purpose of this Regulation is to address the risks stemming from the road circulation of non-road mobile machinery designed and constructed for performing work and not for the transport of persons, animals or goods, except insofar as it carries materials that contribute to its operation, this Regulation should not apply to machinery the only objective of which is the transport of persons, animals or goods. All types of new personal mobility devices, such as stand-up and seated e-scooters, electrically assisted pedal cycles including electrically power-assisted cycles and those intended for carrying commercial cargo, self-balancing vehicles including self-balancing personal transporters and hoverboards, electric unicycles, electric skateboards and ‘one-wheel’ boards, are therefore not subject to this Regulation.

(9)Since the purpose of this Regulation is to address road circulation of non-road mobile machinery designed and constructed for performing work, and not to transport workers, mobile machinery which is equipped with more than three seating positions, including the driver’s seating position, is also excluded from the scope of this Regulation. Any space should be considered as a seating position if it is designed for use when the non-road mobile machinery is circulating on public roads and can be reasonably used as such and it allows a fifth percentile adult female to be seated.

(10)This Regulation should cover only non-road mobile machinery intended to circulate on public roads and that is placed on the market from the date of application of this Regulation and is either new non-road mobile machinery produced by a manufacturer established in the Union or non-road mobile machinery, whether new or second-hand, imported from a third country.

(11)This Regulation should apply to non-road mobile machinery intended to circulate on public roads irrespective of its propulsion system and, therefore, should also apply to electric and hybrid machinery. This Regulation should be without prejudice to the electric safety requirements related to electric drives laid down in Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 of the European Parliament and of the Council (9).

(12)Slow non-road mobile machinery represents the majority of the non-road mobile machinery market. In addition, some Member States have established a road circulation speed limit for non-road mobile machinery of 40 km/h. Moreover, as road safety risks are proportional to road speed, it would not be coherent for a framework that addresses safety risks only for non-road mobile machinery and not for regular vehicles to cover either fast non-road mobile machinery or non-road mobile machinery not exceeding 6 km/h. This Regulation should therefore not apply to mobile machinery with a maximum design speed not exceeding 6 km/h or exceeding 40 km/h.

(13)In some specific well defined cases, manufacturers should have a choice to use national schemes, EU type-approval or EU individual approval. Given the particularities of prototypes of non-road mobile machinery intended to be used on the road under the responsibility of the manufacturer to carry out specific development test programmes or field tests, non-road mobile machinery designed and constructed or adapted for use by civil protection, fire services and forces responsible for maintaining public order and non-road mobile machinery used primarily in quarries or at airports, it is appropriate to allow manufacturers’ flexibility regarding the approval scheme they apply for.

(14)This can also be the case for small and medium sized enterprises producing non-road mobile machinery in numbers of units that are made available on the market, registered or entered into service not exceeding, per year and in each Member State, 70 units per type.

(15)Though Member States will be able to establish national schemes for the non-road mobile machinery described in recitals 13 and 14, Member States that have not established such a scheme should require manufacturers, for that non-road mobile machinery, to comply with this Regulation. In addition, the Member States that have established such a scheme should allow manufacturers to choose to comply with this Regulation in order to benefit from free movement.

(16)Given that, in certain instances, non-road mobile machinery, due to its excessive dimensions, would not allow for sufficient manoeuvrability on public roads or could, due to its excessive mass, axle loads or ground contact pressure, damage the surface of public roads or other road infrastructure, or due to its fully automated driving systems for on-road use, it is appropriate to provide a discretion to Member States to prohibit the circulation on public roads or registration of such machinery, even if it has been type-approved in accordance with this Regulation. In order to ensure a high level of harmonisation for non-road mobile machinery across the Union, it is important that Member States only prohibit the circulation on public roads of a limited number of machines. Therefore, both the Member States and the Commission should set sufficiently high threshold values to allow as many type-approved machines as possible to circulate on public roads in the territory of the Union.

(17)In order to minimise the risk of injury to persons and of damage to road infrastructure while non-road mobile machinery is circulating on public roads, technical requirements should be set out. The technical requirements should include subjects relating to road safety such as vehicle structure integrity, maximum design speed, speed governor, speed limitation devices and speedometer, braking devices, steering, field of vision, and masses and dimensions. The technical requirements should take into account synergies between the machinery function and the on-road use function of the non-road mobile machinery. In order to keep those technical requirements sufficiently future-proof, the Commission can lay down rules for additional requirements due to technical and scientific progress, such as driver assistance systems and automated and remotely operated driving systems.

(18)In order to reduce the administrative burden for economic operators, this Regulation should allow for the use of components and separate technical units in non-road mobile machinery that have been type-approved in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 167/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council (10) or with Regulation (EU) 2018/858.

(19)All economic operators intervening in the supply and distribution chain should take appropriate measures to ensure that they only make available on the market non-road mobile machinery which is in conformity with this Regulation. It is therefore necessary to provide for a clear and proportionate distribution of obligations which correspond to the role of each economic operator in the supply and distribution chain.

(20)With a view to ensuring that the procedure for monitoring conformity of production, which is one of the cornerstones of the EU type-approval system, has been correctly implemented and functions properly, manufacturers should be regularly checked by the competent authority or by an appropriately qualified technical service designated for that purpose. The sampling rate for such checks should be proportionate to the production volumes concerned. Member States should ensure that their approval authorities and market surveillance authorities have the necessary resources, such as sufficient budgetary, human and material resources, including a sufficient number of competent personnel, as well as sufficient expertise, procedures and other arrangements in place to exercise the powers that are conferred on them under Article 14 of Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 of the European Parliament and of the Council (11).

(21)In order to ensure legal certainty, it is necessary to clarify that rules on market surveillance and control of products entering the market provided for in Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 apply to non-road mobile machinery covered by this Regulation and, in relation to the aspects addressed or covered by the technical requirements laid down in this Regulation, amend Annex I to that Regulation in order to list, in that Annex, the references for this Regulation.

(22)For non-road mobile machinery, there should be an economic operator established in the Union to whom market surveillance authorities can address requests, including requests for information regarding a product’s compliance with this Regulation, and who can cooperate with market surveillance authorities in making sure that immediate corrective action is taken to remedy instances of non-compliance. The economic operators who should perform those tasks are the manufacturer or an authorised representative mandated by the manufacturer for that purpose. The manufacturer should ensure that a mandated authorised representative is appointed at all times during the period the manufacturer holds an EU type-approval or an EU individual approval in accordance with this Regulation.

(23)In order to ensure uniform conditions for the implementation of the EU type-approval and EU individual approval procedure and certain administrative provisions of this Regulation, implementing powers should be conferred on the Commission. Those powers should be exercised in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council (12).

(24)Closer coordination between national authorities through information exchange and coordinated assessments under the direction of a coordinating authority is fundamental in order to ensure a consistently high level of health and safety within the internal market. It also leads to more efficient use of scarce resources at national level. For this purpose, an advisory forum for exchange of information on enforcement should be established for Member States and the Commission with the objective of promoting best practices, exchanging information and coordinating activities related to the enforcement of this Regulation. Given the establishment of such a forum and considering its tasks, it should not be necessary to establish a separate administrative cooperation group as required by Article 30(2) of Regulation (EU) 2019/1020. However, the forum should be considered as an administrative cooperation group for the purposes of the Union Product Compliance Network referred to in Article 29 of that Regulation.

(25)In order to supplement this Regulation, the power to adopt acts in accordance with Article 290 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union should be delegated to the Commission in respect of: the methodology for the determination of the threshold values that may be applied in relation to the excessive dimensions and mass, axle loads or ground contact pressure of non-road mobile machinery; the applicability of the elements of the technical requirements; the laying down of detailed technical requirements, test procedures and test methods; virtual testing; and the arrangements with regard to conformity of production and for specifying rules in relation to technical services. It is of particular importance that the Commission carries out appropriate consultations during its preparatory work, including at expert level, and that those consultations are conducted in accordance with the principles laid down in the Interinstitutional Agreement of 13 April 2016 on Better Law-Making (13). In particular, to ensure equal participation in the preparation of delegated acts, the European Parliament and the Council receive all documents at the same time as Member States’ experts, and their experts systematically have access to meetings of Commission expert groups dealing with the preparation of delegated acts.

(26)Member States should lay down rules on penalties applicable to infringements of this Regulation and should take all measures necessary to ensure that they are implemented. Those penalties should be effective, proportionate and dissuasive.

(27)The Commission should report to the European Parliament and the Council on the operation of this Regulation and, based on information provided by Member States, reconsider, if needed, the question of whether to submit an exclusive legislative proposal or extend the transitional period for the national type-approval.

(28)In order to enable Member States and national authorities as well as economic operators to prepare for the application of the new rules introduced by this Regulation, a date of application falling after the date of its entry into force should be set. It is also necessary to provide for a transitional period allowing manufacturers, during that period, to comply with this Regulation and benefit from free movement or to comply with the relevant national type-approval legislation.

(29)With a view to facilitating the implementation of the harmonised provisions of this Regulation after its entry into force, Member States should refrain, during the transitional period, from adopting new national technical regulations for the approval of non-road mobile machinery circulating on public roads that are not aligned with those established in this Regulation. The transitional period should apply only for those Member States that have in place, during that period, any existing or new national technical regulations for the approval of non-road mobile machinery circulating on public roads.

(30)This Regulation respects the fundamental rights and observes the principles recognised in particular by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (the ‘Charter’). Accordingly, this Regulation should be interpreted and applied with respect to those rights and principles, in particular the right to respect for private and family life, which includes the right to respect for one’s home, in accordance with Article 7 of the Charter.

(31)Since the objective of this Regulation, namely laying down harmonised technical requirements, administrative requirements and procedures for the EU type-approval and the EU individual approval of new non-road mobile machinery intended to circulate on public roads, as well as the rules and procedures for the market surveillance of such machinery, cannot be sufficiently achieved by the Member States, but can rather, by reason of its scale and effects, be better achieved at Union level, the Union may adopt measures in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union. In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Regulation does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve that objective,