Safety at work: work equipment, minimum requirements (amend. Directive 89/655/EEC)

The Council's common position makes sweeping changes to the amended proposal by deleting numerous amendments by the European Parliament and making important changes to the content of the proposal. The main amendments relate to the following points: . Annex I: the minimum requirements of the Annex, inasmuch as they apply to work equipment in use, do not call for the same measures as the essential requirements concerning new work equipment. A large proportion of the equipment included in this Annex has been deleted: - woodworking and allied machinery-presses; - scaffolding; - work equipment used for detecting non-apparent risks; - bolt-firing tools, bolt guns, nail drivers and similar work equipment. As far as the other points of the Annex are concerned: mobile equipment and work equipment for lifting loads, which are now only referred to in Annex I, are supplemented by additional requirements relating to fork-lift trucks; . Annex II: as far as the nature of this Annex is concerned, the Council has reached a compromise by making what were initially minimum requirements simple "provisions", the objectives of which are achieved at the discretion of the Member States using methods determined by them after consultation with the social partners and taking account of national legislation (it being understood that the Member States remain free to introduce more stringent provisions). As far as the content of this Annex is concerned, the Council has deleted all the provisions relating to: - systems for fixing work equipment to the ground; - powered work equipment (including powered equipment on an electrical installation), - equipment containing materials which flow or are sucked in; - work equipment operated manually. - remote-controlled mobile equipment. It has reworded point 3 of this Annex (work equipment for lifting loads) and completely deleted Annex III which related directly to it. It has also deleted point 4 of this Annex (minimum requirements relating to the use of other work equipment); . the Council has deleted all reference to the equipment inspection plan, thereby simply abolishing Annexes IV and V; . as far as making workers aware of the risks relevant to them is concerned, the Council has reduced the scope of the article in question; . finally, the Council has replaced the date for transposition of the directive into national law (31 December 1996) by a date three years after the adoption of the directive.�