CEMA has increasing concerns on the expected proposal on EU road circulation requirements for mobile machinery

The request of industry to harmonise road circulation for mobile machinery like harvesters, self-propelled sprayers, etc, dates back many years. The last legal initiative was launched a few years ago and the industries concerned were very pleased and grateful with the received support from the European Commission to engage in the initiative.

As part of the Industrial Task Force, CEMA worked hard and in close collaboration with Member States and European Commission to ensure that the chosen legal framework would reduce administrative burden to a minimum and that it would have a scope that would include also exceptional vehicles like many agricultural mobile machinery, on account of their design to process materials but also the wide tyres to lower soil compaction.

In mid-June the European Commission held a webinar to explain the main aspects of its proposal for legislation ahead of publication, as a courtesy to industry and to avoid surprises.  

The proposal presented was however not in line with the expectations. Instead of a reassuring solid piece of legislation, taking into account industry concerns, it was limited to the basics of approval procedures, and a confusing list of requirements not aligned with the detailed requirements presented and discussed with all stakeholders already more than one year ago. But biggest surprise was not on what was mentioned but what was not mentioned.

The joint industries already prepared proposals for a ‘simplified’ Type approval path, with different levels of stringency in the procedures taking into account the safety on road as first priority. This would result in minimum burden on administration, and overall reduced cost and reduced time to market.

CEMA will await the publication with great interest and will actively engage in the legal process to make a legislation suitable for a low volume industry that rarely uses public roads.