The European Commission presents the Cost-benefit analysis study

On 5 December 2019 the European Commission published the long awaited Cost-benefit analysis study for impact assessment on road circulation of non-road mobile machinery as addressed by consultant EASME.

This study provided the evidence base for identifying the best policy option, with the largest long-term net benefit for society, including the affected economic operators and EU citizens in all the EU Member States.

Harmonised legislation would reduce by 1/5 cost of compliance for manufacturers

The analysis shows that the introduction of harmonised legislation would reduce the costs of compliance by around 1/5, suggesting that a significant cost saving could be achieved through EU action. At the aggregate level, industry could save from 18% to 22% of their compliance costs, which roughly translates into EUR1 to 1.3 billion over a ten-year period.

For manufacturers, the current fragmented situation not only creates direct costs of compliance with different regulations in different Member States, but also leads to barriers to other EU markets and causes market delays that translate into lost revenue. It also increases costs down the supply chain, which in the end become a burden for end-users. This is why industry has for long asked for harmonization and simplification. 

And the most beneficial policy option is...

The cost-benefit analysis suggests that the most beneficial policy option is the Hybrid Approach, being a combination of type approval and self-certification. Potentially, these new systems would respectively save around EUR 1 281 million for all the EU mobile machinery stakeholders combined.

These results and the outcomes from the targeted consultations run by the European Commission with Member States were presented during a workshop on 9 December 2019. All this, provided a better insight in the current applicable requirements and the differences in conformity procedures among the EU. 

The Industrial task force, in which CEMA and all related EU industry associations of mobile machinery are represented, voiced its position, calling again to include all mobile machines to be in scope regardless of mass or width, whilst leaving the decision to use the national roads to Member States. A first assessment of the European Commission on the industry proposal for technical requirements was discussed.

This was the first series of a workshop that will be followed by others in order to arrive at a solid proposal for regulation. The timeline indicated would be to have a draft Regulation ready for discussions with Council and Parliament by mid-2021.