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Summaries of EU Legislation

Machinery safety

Date of last review:
10/06/2025
Initial creation date:
17/11/2010
Summary code:
  • 09.03.02.00 Product safety rules
  • 19.05.01.00 Industry sectors
  • 24.03.08.01 Machinery & related tools – safety & accuracy
EUROVOC descriptor:
Directory code:
Summarised document(s):
Author:
Publications Office of the European Union
Responsible entity(ies):
Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs

Machinery safety

SUMMARY OF:

Directive 2006/42/EC on machinery

WHAT IS THE AIM OF THE DIRECTIVE?

  • Directive 2006/42/EC enables machinery that meets European Union (EU) health and safety requirements to be moved freely throughout the EU. This means that workers and the public are well protected when they use or come into contact with machinery.
  • The health and safety requirements are compulsory, but the standards that give presumption of conformity1 with the requirements, the references to which are published in the Official Journal of the European Union, are voluntary.
  • It only applies to products when they are first placed on the EU market.
  • It helps the EU to be more innovative, efficient and competitive.
  • The directive has been repealed by Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 (see summary), although it will remain applicable until .

KEY POINTS

Scope

  • Directive 2006/42/EC covers machinery, interchangeable equipment, safety components, lifting accessories, chains, ropes and webbing, removable mechanical transmission devices and partly completed machinery.
  • It does not cover other types of machinery, such as that used in fairgrounds, the nuclear industry, laboratories and mines, or by the military or the police.

Manufacturers’ obligations

Manufacturers must:

  • carry out a risk assessment to identify which health and safety requirements apply to their machinery;
  • keep the risk assessment in mind when designing and building their machinery;
  • determine the limits on using the machinery;
  • identify any potential hazards;
  • assess the risk of their machinery causing severe injury or damage and take measures to make it safer;
  • make sure that their machinery complies with the essential health and safety requirements listed in Annex I to the directive;
  • provide a technical document confirming that the machinery meets the directive’s requirements;
  • ensure that they apply conformity assessment procedures and provide all necessary information, including instructions for assembly and use;
  • fill in the declaration of conformity and ensure that the CE conformity marking has been affixed to the machinery, so that it can be used anywhere in the EU.

European Commission powers to adopt delegated and implementing acts

Under amending Regulation (EU) 2019/1243, the European Commission was given the power to adopt delegated acts to amend the indicative list of safety components in Annex V to Directive 2006/42/EC.

To ensure uniform conditions for the implementation of Directive 2006/42/EC, the Commission is given powers to introduce necessary measures to deal with potentially hazardous machinery by means of implementing acts. These powers must be exercised in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 (see summary).

Internal market emergency mode

Amending Directive (EU) 2024/2749 seeks to avoid disruptions to the internal market in the event of an emergency by ensuring that, once an internal market emergency mode, as set out in Regulation (EU) 2024/2747 (the Internal Market Emergency and Resilience Act), has been activated by means of an implementing act adopted by the Council of the European Union, designated crisis-relevant goods and services2 can be placed on the market as rapidly as possible.

Directive (EU) 2024/2749 amends Directive 2006/42/EC setting out how these emergency procedures would apply. Among other things, the new rules:

  • require conformity-assessment3 bodies to prioritise applications for conformity of crisis-relevant products over those for products that are not;
  • allow EU Member States, on an exceptional basis and where there is a duly justified request, to temporarily authorise the placing on the market of machinery without carrying out the normal conformity-assessment procedures, where the involvement of a notified body is mandatory and can ensure that all essential requirements are met;
  • allow the competent national authorities to presume that products manufactured in accordance with EU standards, relevant applicable national standards or relevant applicable international standards developed by a recognised international standardisation body, identified by the Commission as suitable to reach conformity and ensuring an equivalent level of protection to that offered by the harmonised standards, comply with the relevant applicable essential requirements;
  • give the Commission the possibility to adopt, by means of implementing acts, common specifications on which the manufacturers can rely in order to benefit from a presumption of conformity with the applicable essential requirements (implementing acts laying down those common specifications remain applicable for the duration of the internal market emergency mode).

Repeal

Directive 2006/42/EC is repealed and replaced by Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 (see summary) as of .

FROM WHEN DO THE RULES APPLY?

Directive 2006/42/EC had to be transposed into national law by . These rules have applied since .

The rules adopted under amending Directive (EU) 2024/2749 have to be transposed into national law by and will apply from .

BACKGROUND

Directive 2006/42/EC recast and replaced Directive 98/37/EC and its subsequent amendments.

For further information, see:

KEY TERMS

  1. Presumption of conformity. A situation where manufacturers follow harmonised standards in the design and manufacture of their products, their products are considered to be in line with the relevant EU rules.
  2. Crisis-relevant goods and services. Goods or services that are non-substitutable, non-diversifiable or indispensable in the maintenance of vital societal functions or economic activities in order to ensure the proper functioning of the internal market and its supply chains, that are considered essential for responding to a crisis and that are listed in an implementing act adopted by the Council.
  3. Conformity assessment. The process confirming that a product satisfies the necessary process, service, system, person or body requirements.

MAIN DOCUMENT

Directive 2006/42/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of on machinery, and amending Directive 95/16/EC (recast) (OJ L 157, , pp. 24–86).

Successive amendments to Directive 2006/42/EC have been incorporated into the original text. This consolidated version is of documentary value only.

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