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Machinery Product Regulation: Status of the ongoing work at the Council and the Parliament level

21-12-2021

Since the release of the proposal on the revision of the Machinery Directive by the European Commission in April 2021, known as the Machinery Product Regulation (MPR), work on the file has been conducted in parallel in the Council and in the Parliament.

At the Council level, twelve meetings were held so far (four under the Portuguese Presidency and eight under the Slovenian one); a progress report was emitted by the Presidency to highlight the main issues. In addition to the ones reported in the article related to the Machinery Expert Group, the introduction of the wording ‘machinery product’ is questioned by Member States, as it generates some confusion.

At the Parliament level, the draft report emitted by the Rapporteur of the MPR at the IMCO (Internal Market and Consumer Protection) Committee on 20 October was well received, as it officially suggests some amendments which answer to the concerns expressed by CEMA.

This involves in particular:

  • the addition of a definition for “safety function”
  • the extension of the application date of the MPR and of the date of withdrawal of Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC
  • the revision of the requirements on supervisory control function at it takes over the proposal from CEMA

A further round of contacts to submit additional amendments was possible, as members of the IMCO Committee had till 9 November to submit their proposals.

Overall, almost 440 amendments have been suggested. These will be discussed in the IMCO Committee with the vote on the report planned on March.