CEMA supports EU legislation for harmonized roadway legislation for non-road machinery

CEMA has announced its support of new EU legislation aimed at harmonizing legislation for non-road mobile machinery traveling across roadways in Europe.

CEMA

CEMA has announced its support and has put forth a call to action for the European Commission to develop legislation which harmonizes the laws and requirements for non-road mobile machines (NRMM) to travel on roadways. 

Currently in Europe each EU member state has its own legislation regarding the weight, width, lighting, braking and signalling for NRMM traveling on roadways, such as agricultural equipment like combine harvesters. CEMA says the differentiation between the member states is difficult not only for farmers, but also OEMs who have to ensure their equipment meets the varied requirements of all the countries. 

According to CEMA, the differing regulations correlate to unnecessary and disproportionate cost burdens to the OEM, particularly to small- and medium-sized manufacturers (SMEs), leading to the potential stifling of innovation and competition. Burdens put on the manufacturers include: 

  • additional workload during the development phase to meet diverging requirements
  • considerable delays in the introduction of new machines
  • enormous compliance costs due to multiple testing, multiple third-party certifications, including those for documentation requirements (which differ from country to country).

As early as 2001, a study by the European Commission found an urgent need to harmonize the road travel regulations for NRMM was necessary. And in 2014, the commission has made the commitment to develop a legislation proposal by 2016. 

CEMA states it supports this legislation going into effect and believes harmonization will bring benefits such as: 

  • a consistent high level of safety on the road for NRMM across the EU
  • increased uniformity for operators when using NRMM
  • creating a level-playing field for all manufacturers, including specialist equipment manufactures and SMEs, as well as customers
  • facilitating the design, testing, manufacturing, purchasing, operating and reselling of machines.

CEMA says it calls on the EU to speed up the harmonization of road circulation requirements for NRMMs. In addition, it believes the new EU legislation should allow manufacturers to provide a "Declaration of Conformity" (DOC) without a mandatory third party certification.

Read CEMA's full position paper regarding the new EU legislation.

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