The Challenge
Tractors are excluded from the Machinery Directive 98/37/EC. At the time the new Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC was adopted, the Tractor Directive did not deal with all the risks associated with the use of tractors. In order to ensure that all relevant risks were covered, agricultural and forestry tractors were excluded from the scope of the Machinery Directive only for the risks covered by the Tractor Type-Approval Directive (2003/37/EC). For risks not covered by the Tractor Directive, the Machinery Directive applies. The manufacturer of a tractor should therefore assess the conformity of the tractor with the essential health and safety requirements of the Machinery Directive that deal with the risks concerned, affix the CE-marking to the tractor and establish an EC Declaration of conformity. This EC Declaration of conformity should be included in documentation supplied by the manufacturer with the request for EC type-approval according to Directive 2003/37/EC.
The CEMA position
When the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC was adopted, the following joint declaration was made by the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission: to cover the health and safety risks of agricultural and forestry tractors, 2003/37/ EC needs to be modified so as to address all the relevant risks of the Machinery Directive. Such a modification of Directive 2003/37/EC should include an amendment of the Machinery Directive, in order to delete the expression “for the risks”. CEMA has contributed largely to the identification by the Commission of a list of remaining risks and the necessary new standards and changes in legislation to cover these risks. It is of utmost importance that tractors are excluded again from the Machinery Directive and that any new health and safety risks will be dealt with under the tractor directive. An official agreement of the Commission and Member States is needed before 29 December 2009. An approval in ‘Comitology’ (in the Committee for adaptation to technical progress by Commission and member states representatives) is at hand. The next step is an amendment of the Machinery Directive. Only then, all legal uncertainty will be removed.
“Why change a good working system, set up for such dedicated applications? It is open to reduce adequately new identified risks with full support of all stakeholders… there is no need to place manufacturers in a situation of legal uncertainty and to add unnecessary administrative burden.”“In these dark times industry’s fuel for innovation is not endless...some comprehension and common sense would get us much further.”
CEMA Technical Board Chairman Dr. Heribert Reiter (Fendt)
