General information about the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC
Directive 2006/42/EC (the so-called Machinery Directive - MD) has regulated the requirements for machinery within the European Union since 9 June 2006 and must be applied from 29 December 2009. The directive defines the essential health and safety requirements in order to ensure a high level of safety for machine operators and users.
As a regulation of the so-called "New Legislative Framework" the MD defines only the essential requirements – detailed technical specifications for this are developed by the European standardisation organisations CEN and CENELEC in the scope of harmonised standards.
If subsequently machinery is "manufactured in conformity with a harmonised standard, the references to which have been published in the Official Journal of the European Union", the machinery shall be "presumed to comply with the essential health and safety requirements covered by such a harmonised standard." By affixing the CE marking, the manufacturer declares that the product meets the applicable requirements and is the visible consequence of a whole process that includes the conformity assessment in the broader sense.
Harmonised standards for the Low Voltage Directive in the EU Official Journal
A publication of harmonised standards as references in the EU Official Journal for the LVD occurs at irregular intervals by means of so-called implementing decisions, which amend the existing list of harmonised standards for Directive 2014/35/EU.
Within the framework of such a decision standards created on behalf of the Commission are added. This can be done by adding new standards that are listed in the EU Official Journal for the first time, or by including direct successor documents if the predecessor standard no longer corresponds to the state of the art and had to be adapted to changed requirements. An ad hoc adjustment at short notice can also be made via amending standards, which only include a targeted adjustment of a specific section of the ‘basic standard’.
When new successor standards are adopted, the predecessors are removed from the EU Official Journal after a transitional period. This is currently 18 months in order to give manufacturers sufficient time to adapt to the changed safety and health requirements.
Note: On 29 June 2020, the successor to the MD, the so-called Machinery Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 (MR), was published was published and must be applied as of 20 January 2027. Harmonised standards for the MD are currently still being drafted or developed. You can find details in our article "New Machinery Regulation – Status of Harmonised Standards".
Seminar tip
Efficient CE marking and risk assessment of machines
Our 2-day seminar Efficient CE marking and risk assessment of machinery and plants deals with requirements for safe design of machinery – and covers both the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC and the new Machinery Regulation (EU) 2023/1230.
Don't miss any news on standards and publications relating to the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC
- Register now for the CE-InfoService to receive direct information on new and revised standards and on the end of transition periods.
- Background information on the topic "Presumption of conformity" and other aspects of standardisation can be found in our free technical article "Standards topicality vs. presumption of conformity".
- The consolidated list of standards with presumption of conformity to the MD includes a list of all MD standards in the EU Official Journal and are always updated by the EU Commission promptly after publication of new standards
- In our "Machinery Directive (EU)’" data package, the standard data on the Safexpert Live Server is updated promptly as soon as an implementing decision amends the list of harmonised standards or the end of a transition period has been reached.
- The EU Commission's Guide to application of the Machinery Directive provides valuable explanations for interpreting individual contents of Directive 2006/42/EC and also lists important standards for application
Updates in the Official Journal
Below we have listed the implementing decisions with amended standard data for the Machinery directive, which contains the most important information as well as a link to the full text of the legal act.
2024-09-16 Commission implementing decision 2024/2408
The list of harmonized standards giving presumption of conformity for the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC was updated on 2024-09-16:
EU Official Journal: C/2024/6400
Publication date: 2024-09-16
Legal basis: Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC
Successors: Direct successor standards were published for 3 standards
AMENDED: For the standard EN ISO 3164:2013 an amendment was published
REMOVED (WITH TRANSITIONAL PERIOD): 3 standards will be removed with transition period as of 2026-03-16
2024-05-15 Commission implementing decision 2024/1329
The list of harmonized standards giving presumption of conformity for the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC was updated on 2024-05-15:
EU Official Journal: C/2024/3166
Publication date: 2024-05-15
Legal basis: Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC
NEW: 7 standards were included in the EU Official Journal for the first time:
Successors: Direct successor standards were published for 10 standards
AMENDED: Amendment documents were published for 3 standards
REMOVED (WITH TRANSITIONAL PERIOD): 13 standards will be removed with transition period
RESTRICTION: The standards EN 15700:2023 (belt conveyors for winter sports or leisure activities) and EN 15194:2017+A1:2023 (electric motor assisted wheels) have been published with restrictions
SAFEXPERT-USER:
All changes are already available to you on the Safexpert LiveServer.
Notes:
- Among the newly added standards are the following particularly relevant B standards:
- EN ISO 13849-1:2023 (Safety of machinery - Safety-related parts of control systems - Part 1: General principles for design)
- EN ISO 25119, Parts 1-4 (Tractors and machinery for agriculture and forestry - Safety-related parts of control systems)
- The implementing decision communicated 3 different dates for deletion. In addition to the 18-month transition period granted as usual, there are deadlines of 36 months (EN ISO 13849-1:2015) and 24 months (EN 15194:2017).
- A missing document type was communicated for 2 standards in the past; this has been corrected for the standards EN 1127-2 (new: type B standard) and EN 11554:2017 (new: type B standard).
- National editions (ÖNORM) do not yet exist for some of the new harmonised standards. As soon as these appear, this will be added immediately for each standard.
2024-04-30 Commission implementing decision 2024/1256
The list of harmonized standards giving presumption of conformity for the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC was updated on 2024-04-30:
EU Official Journal: C/2024/2641
Publication date: 2024-04-30
Legal basis: Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC
RESTRICTION: 4 standards have been published in the OJEU with a restriction:
- EN 12525:2000 + A2:2010 (Agricultural machinery – Front loaders – Safety)
- EN 15997:2011 incl. AC:2012 (All terrain vehicles (ATVs – Quads) - Safety requirements and test methods)
- EN 62841-1:2015 incl AC:2015 and A11:2022 (Electric motor-operated hand-held tools, transportable tools and lawn and garden machinery - Safety - Part 1: General requirements)
- EN 62841-2-11:2016 incl. A1:2020 (Electric motor-operated hand-held tools, transportable tools and lawn and garden machinery - Safety - Part 2-11: Particular requirements for hand-held reciprocating saws)
2023-08-02, Commission Implementing Decision 2023/1586
The list of harmonized standards giving presumption of conformity for the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC was updated on 2023-08-02:
EU Official Journal: C/2023/4914
Publication date: 2024-08-02
Legal basis: Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC
NEW: 20 standards were included in the EU Official Journal for the first time:
Successors: Direct successor standards were published for 63 standards
AMENDED: Amendment documents were published for 10 standards.
REMOVED (WITH TRANSITIONAL PERIOD): 63 standards will be removed with transition period as of 2025-02-02
RESTRICTION: The standard EN 11850:2011 including the amendments A1:2016 and A2:2022 was published with restrictions
SAFEXPERT-USER:
All changes are already available to you on the Safexpert LiveServer.
Notes:
- The contract with the management consultancy EY, which as a so-called HAS contractor checks whether the harmonised standards meet the requirements of the underlying directive, was renegotiated and not signed until mid-2022. This resulted in a "backlog" of standards for which listing in the EU Official Journal was pending. This implementing decision with harmonised standards for the Machinery Directive is therefore very extensive.
- For reasons of clarity, the Commission has repealed the previous Implementing Decision (EU) 2019/436 on the publication of harmonised standards for the Machinery Directive, which was supplemented several times. Today's decision therefore includes a complete list of all harmonised standards with presumption of conformity according to the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC in the annex.
- The newly added standards include the following particularly relevant B standards
- EN 17624:2022 (Determination of the explosion limits of gases and vapours at elevated pressures, elevated temperatures or with oxidising agents other than air)
- EN 15967:2022 (Method for the determination of the maximum explosion pressure and the maximum pressure rise over time for gases and vapours)
- For some of the new harmonised standards, no national editions (ÖNORM) exist yet. As soon as these are published, they will be added immediately for each standard. This primarily concerns CENELEC standards.
2023-01-10, Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2023/69
The list of harmonized standards which give presumption of conformity for the Machinery Directive (2006/42/EC) was updated on 2023-01-10.
Official Journal of the EU: C/2023/33
Publication Date: 2023-01-10
Legal basis: Machinery Directive (2006/42/EC)
RESTRICTION: The standard EN 15194:2017 was published with a restriction.
2022/04/13, Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2022/621
The list of harmonized standards which give presumption of conformity for the Machinery Directive (2006/42/EC) was updated on 2022-04-13:
Official Journal of the EU: C/2022/2227
Publication Date: 2022-04-13
Legal basis: Machinery Directive (2006/42/EC)
NEW: 3 standards were published in the Official Journal for the first time:
- EN 13852-3:2021 - Cranes - Offshore cranes - Part 3: Light offshore cranes
- EN 16564:2020 - Steel wire ropes - Safety - Part 5: Stranded ropes for lifts
- EN 12609:2021 - Truck mixers - Safety requirements
SUCCESSOR: For 13 standards direct successors were published
AMENDMENT: For 3 standards amendments were published
REMOVED (WITH TRANSITIONAL PERIOD): 13 standards will be removed with transition period as per 10/11/2023.
SAFEXPERT-USERS:
All changes are already available on the Safexpert Live Server.
Comments:
- For the standard EN 474-1:2006+A6:2019 (Earth-moving machinery - Safety - Part 1: General requirements), which was already listed in the OJEU, a further legal note regarding the presumption of conformity has been published
- For some of the newly harmonised standards the national editions (ÖNORM) have not been published yet. Once they are available, they will be suplemented as soon as possible.
- Among the newly added standards the following relevant type-B standards appear:
- EN IEC 62061:2021 (Safety of machinery - Functional safety of safety-related control systems)
- EN ISO 11202:2010/A1:2021 (Acoustics - Noise emitted by machinery and equipment - Amendment)
2021/10/15, Commission Implementing Decision 2021/1813
The list of harmonized standards which give presumption of conformity for the Machinery Directive (2006/42/EG) was updated on 2021-10-15:
Official Journal of the EU: C/2021/7403
Publication Date: 2021-10-15
Legal basis: Machinery Directive (2006/42/EG)
NEW: 4 standards were published in the Official Journal for the first time:
- EN 1459-5:2020 - Rough-terrain trucks - Safety requirements and verification - Part 5: Attachment interface
- EN 16564:2020 - Machines and plants for mining and tooling of natural stone - Safety - Requirements for bridge type sawing/milling machines, included numerical control (NC/CNC) versions
- EN 16808:2020 - Petroleum, petrochemical and natural gas industries - Safety of machineries - Manual elevators
- EN 19085-10:2019 - Woodworking machines - Safety - Part 10: Building site saws (contractor saws) (ISO 19085-10:2018, Corrected version 2019-12)
SUCCESSOR: For 21 standards direct successors were published
GEÄNDERT: For 1 standard an amendment was published
ENTFERNT (MIT ÜBERGANGSFRIST): 28 standards will be removed with transition period as per 04/15/2023, one standard per /05/02/2023.
SAFEXPERT-USERS:
All changes are already available on the Safexpert Live Server.
Comments:
- The standard EN 12999:2020 was added as a successor of the standard 12999:2011+A2:201 within the Official Journal, however was no date of withdrawal announced for the previous standard. Hence both standards fulfill (for the time being) the presumption of conformity without restrictions
- EN ISO 20430:2020 supersedes the standard EN 201:2009 (Plastics and rubber machines - Injection moulding machines - Safety requirements)
- Standard EN 474-1:2006+A6:2019 was published in the OJEU with a restriction
- Among the newly added standards the following relevant type-B standards appear:
- EN 1837:2020
- EN 11553-1:2020
2021-03-03, Commission Implementing Decision 2021/377
The list of harmonized standards which give presumption of conformity for the Machinery Directive (2006/42/EG) was updated on 2021-03-03:
Official Journal of the EU: C/2021/1415
Publication Date: 2021-03-03
Legal basis: Machinery Directive (2006/42/EC)
NEW: One standard was published in the Official Journal for the first time (EN 62745:2017 incl. A1:2020)
SUCCESSOR: For 18 standards direct successors were published
AMENDED: For 8 standards amendments were published
REMOVED (WITH TRANSITIONAL TIME): 17 standards will be removed with transition period as per 09/03/2022
SAFEXPERT-USERS:
All changes are already available on the Safexpert Live Server.
Comments:
- The standard EN ISO 3743-2:2019 was added as a successor of the standard EN ISO 3743-2:2009 within the Official Journal, however was no date of withdrawal announced for the previous standard. Hence both standards fulfill (for the time being) the presumption of conformity without restrictions
- EN 13851:2019 supersedes the standard EN 574:1996 + A1:2008 (Safety of machinery - Two-hand control devices - Functional aspects - Principles for design)
- EN 13854:2019 supersedes the standard EN 349:1993 + A1:2008 (Safety of machinery - Minimum gaps to avoid crushing of parts of the human body)
2020-04-02, Commission Implementing Decision 2020/480
The list of harmonised standards giving presumption of conformity for the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC was updated on 2020-04-02:
EU Official Journal: C/2020/1919
Publication Date: 2020-04-02
Legal basis: Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC
NEW: 26 new standards were published for the first time
TRANSITIONAL PERIOD: 24 standards were given a transitional period