At its June plenary session, the EESC adopted an information report on the revision of the Machinery Directive. EESC members welcomed the Commission's current efforts to improve the performance of Directive 2006/42/EC, which is a very important and successful instrument for European industry, while noting that radical changes to the directive would have a deeply negative impact and must be avoided.
"The basic approach and the architecture of the directive must remain unchanged", argued Aurel Laurenţiu Plosceanu, rapporteur for the report. "We have also recommended that the Commission consider the chronic understaffing, underfunding and poor performance of machinery inspections and controls in most of the Member States. We call on them to move from words to action," he concluded.
The co-rapporteur, Enrico Gibellieri, said that the directive was important for the single market as it ensured the safety of components: "We need to make sure that we are protecting consumer interests, we need to be able to improve this machinery continuously to make sure that there is ever better protection for workers".
To update the Machinery Directive, the DG for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs launched a public consultation in June 2019. The legislation is scheduled for adoption during first quarter of 2021. (ks)