Industrial task force puts forward sector-specific changes to the Brexit regulation on type-approval

Brexit is very near in terms of possible adaptations to European type-approvals. Whether a hard or soft landing, the industry needs legal certainty and clarity as soon as possible to be ready when the UK steps out and all UK provided EU type approvals become invalid in the EU27. The Commission drafted a regulation to solve issues on type approval in relation to Brexit.

The proposal for a new regulation complementing EU type-approval legislation after Brexit is currently being discussed in the Council and European Parliament. This legislation will allow requesting EU type-approval of a vehicle in an EU27 Member State even if there is already an EU type-approval given for this vehicle by a UK authority.

CEMA welcomes this proposal, but sees some room for improvement. Therefore CEMA, as part of an industry task force of all associations representing non-road mobile machinery manufacturers  and manufacturers of its engines (CECE, EUnited Municipal Equipment, EGMF, EUROMOT and FEM) has put forward amendments to the European Parliament, Council and Commission to remove all remaining hurdles for these particular sectors.

The main changes proposed are:

• Allow for a smooth transition for tractor production with UK type-approved components
• Include a clear indication of when conversion to Union type-approval is required
• Only make repetitions of test necessary when serious concerns are demonstrated
• Recognise markings of engines already in the supply chain
• Make the obligations of type-approval authorities after the placing on the market of a product clear

Council discussions are expected to be finalised in the coming weeks. The European Parliament is expected to approve its position in the Internal Market Committee by the end of October. Afterwards, a trialogue negotiation between all EU institutions will start.

CEMA calls on swift adoption of the legislation and calls on the negotiators to quickly finalise the negotiations. CEMA's full position paper can be found here.

UK plans for vehicles with EU type-approval

Moreover, the UK government also presented its plans regarding the placement on the UK market of vehicles with an EU type-approval in the case of a no-deal Brexit. In short, all vehicles with an EU type-approval from an EU27 country need to obtain an UK type-approval. How to exactly convert the EU type-approvals to an UK type-approval is not known yet and more information on the details will be made available in due course.

In the short-term provisional UK type-approvals can be given and the conversion of the EU type-approval to a UK type-approval should be an administrative procedure. These provisional UK type-approvals should be valid for a limited period of time and a full-conversion should take place during that time.

The full document with the plans from the UK government can be found HERE