The European Parliament approved the text of the new Machinery Regulation on 18 April. The agreement means that six categories of machinery will be included in Annex I. For these categories of machinery, conformity checks will have to be carried out by a third party. For most products (listed in Annex I, Part B), the manufacturer himself can carry out the conformity assessment. The conformity assessment procedure will be stricter for specific categories of machinery before they are placed on the EU market, e.g. machinery with self-evolvingbehaviour (based on machine learning) and other product categories mentioned in Annex I, Part A of the new regulation.
The plenary of the parliament adopted it with 595 votes in favour, 7 against and 30 abstentions. The text now has to be formally approved by the Council. Thereafter, the new regulation will be published in the Official Journal of the European Union and will enter into force on the 20th day following its publication.
The new regulation will apply from 42 months after entry into force, giving businesses time to adapt to the new requirements.