The European Rental Association (ERA) is alerting members to the impact of the proposed European Commission move to replace the EU Machinery Directive with a ‎Machinery Regulation.

The legislative process on the Machinery Regulation is under way and the rules could be in force as early as next year.

“The EU Machinery Directive, which is in force today, is a guarantee that the rental products included in the scope of ‎the Directive are designed and manufactured in a way that allows them to be operated safely and present no danger ‎to persons or property in ‘normal use’. For rental companies, the Directive is a guarantee that a piece of equipment ‎purchased in one ‎member state is compliant with safety requirements wherever it will be used inside the EU. It also ‎‎guarantees that there is no additional check if the piece is moved to another EU member state,” the ERA notes.‎

As EU directives need to be transposed into national law to be implemented in each EU member state, the shift ‎from Machinery Directive to Machinery Regulation will reinforce uniform application and implementation of the ‎legislation across the EU, the association explains. EU regulations are directly applicable across the EU without national transposition. ‎They have binding legal force throughout every member state and enter into force on a set date in all member ‎states.‎

ERA points out that the updated legislation will take into account new technologies such as artificial intelligence and cybersecurity.‎

“The new Regulation will provide clarification of definitions and scope (for instance, distributors are defined as ‎anyone who places machinery on the market or puts it into service – which includes rental companies). It will ‎also update the list of high-risk machines.‎

“The Regulation introduces the concept of ‘substantial modification’ that defines conditions under which a renovated ‎machine is not considered a new or different one,” according to an ERA report.

ERA notes that sustainability requirements are not in the scope of the draft Regulation.‎

“This topic is followed by ERA’s Technical Committee,” the association concludes.