Completing the mobile machinery internal market
Mobile machinery (also known as NRMM: non road mobile machinery), includes a wide range of machinery designed to perform specific operations in off-road environments, such as
- agricultural machinery (e.g. sprayers, combined harvesters, forestry equipment)
- construction machinery (e.g. lifting and handling equipment, earthmoving machinery, mobile cranes, industrial trucks)
- gardening machinery (e.g. lawnmowers)
- municipal machinery (e.g. for street cleaning or snow removal)
Occasionally, such machinery would need to travel on the public roads to move from one location to the next one.
EU legislation and mobile machinery
The Commission has been working on a new legislative initiative to harmonise the road circulation safety requirements for mobile machinery.
Many aspects of the machinery sector have been harmonised. However, ‘road safety requirements’ such as lights, brakes, steering, dimensions, etc., are currently regulated at a national level and manufacturers have to comply with requirements which vary between EU countries. This causes administrative burdens and regulatory charges for manufacturers plus possible road safety concerns for the EU countries with more stringent rules.
The European Commission committed to address these problems and improve the functioning of the Internal Market through a new legislative act which will harmonise safety requirements for the road circulation of mobile machinery (self-propelled mobile and towed machinery).
- Roadmap: mobile machinery road circulation requirements – inception impact assessment
The Commission adopted the proposal on 30 March 2023. It was subject to inter-institutional negotiations, and a political agreement was reached in February 2024.
Consultation activities
The Commission conducted a series of consultation activities with all concerned stakeholders
- On 10 November, we launched the public consultation on road circulation requirements for mobile machinery and it stayed open until 2 February 2021
- Stakeholder dialogue: the European Commission organised several workshops with all main stakeholders in June 2017, February 2018, December 2019, May 2021 and June 2022
Relevant information
- Study: Cost-benefit impact assessment on road circulation of non road mobile machinery (December 2019)
- Study: mobile machinery road circulation harmonisation
The objective of this impact assessment on the EU harmonisation of the requirements for the road circulation of mobile machinery was to collect data and evidence.
