Guide to application of the Lifts Directive 95/16/EC - Introduction
INTRODUCTION
This Guide sets out the text of the Lifts Directive 95/16/EC and includes comments on its provisions.
The Guide has been drawn up by the services of the European Commission following consultation of the Member States and of representatives of the lifts industry, standardisation, Notified Bodies and users of lifts. It draws widely on the discussions and conclusions of the Lifts Working Group. It has been approved by the Lifts Committee set up under Article 6(3) of the Lifts Directive.
Most of the comments address issues that are specific to the Lifts Directive. Guidance on the general concepts underlying the Directive can be found in the Commission's Guide to the implementation of Directives based on the New Approach and the Global Approach.
It is important to stress that while this Guide aims to foster uniform interpretation and application of the provisions of the Lifts Directive, only the texts implementing the provisions of the Directive in each Member State have the force of law.
The Guide is published by the European Commission on the Website EUROPA in English. The Member States have been invited to make available other language versions of the Guide, however, only the English version has been checked by the Commission and, in case of doubt, reference should be made to this version.
It is intended to update the Guide regularly in order to include opinions adopted by the Lifts Committee or answers agreed by the Lifts Working Group to questions that arise during application of the Directive.
The Guide includes hyperlinks to a number of reference documents.
In the following Guide, the text of the Directive is presented in boxes in red italic type and the comments are presented below the text of the Directive in black normal type.
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND COUNCIL DIRECTIVE 95/16/EC
of 29 June 1995 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to lifts
PREAMBLE TO THE LIFTS DIRECTIVE - THE CITATIONS
§ 1 The citations
The citations included in the preamble to the Lifts Directive indicate the legal basis of Directive, the opinions expressed by the relevant consultative Committee and the procedure according to which the Directive was adopted. The references to the Articles of the EC Treaty are those that were in force when the Directive was adopted and have since been renumbered.
THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 100a thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission[1],
Having regard to the Opinion of the Economic and Social Committee[2],
Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 189b of the Treaty[3]) in the light of the joint text approved by the Conciliation Committee on 17 May 1995,
§ 2 The legal basis of the Lifts Directive
The legal basis of the Lifts Directive is provided by Article 95 of the EC Treaty (formerly Article 100 A) that enables the Council to adopt measures to harmonise the legislation of the Member States in order to ensure the establishment and functioning of the internal market. Such measures must take as a base a high level of protection of the health and safety of people and of the environment.
The Lifts Directive thus has a dual objective: to permit the free movement of lifts and safety components for lifts within the internal market whilst ensuring that such products provide a high level of protection of the health and safety of people.
Following the proposal by the Commission, the Lifts Directive was adopted by the European Parliament and the Council according to the co-decision procedure set out in Article 251 of the EC Treaty (formerly Article 189 B) after consulting the Economic and social Committee. The footnotes to the citation give the references of the successive steps of the procedure.
PREAMBLE TO THE LIFTS DIRECTIVE - THE RECITALS
§ 3 The recitals
The recitals introduce the main provisions of the Directive and present the reasons for their adoption. They do not have legal force as such and do not usually figure in the national legislation implementing the Directive. However, they help to understand the Directive, in particular, by clarifying the meaning of certain words. In case of litigation, the Courts may take the recitals into consideration to ascertain the intentions of the Council and Parliament when drafting certain provisions. In the published text, the recitals are not numbered. Here, the recitals have been numbered for ease of reference, however no particular importance should be attached to the order in which they appear.
Recital No 1
Whereas Member States are responsible within their territory for the health and safety of people;
§ 4 Health and safety of people
The safeguarding of human health and safety is both a fundamental duty and a prerogative of the Member States. Following adoption of the Lifts Directive, the responsibility of Member States to ensure the health and safety of people with regard to the risks covered by the Directive implies ensuring that the requirements of the Directive are correctly applied - see comments on Article 2(1).
Recital No 2
Whereas paragraphs 65 and 68 of the White Paper on the completion of the internal market, approved by the European Council in June 1985, provide for a new approach to the approximation of laws;
§ 5 The New Approach
The regulatory technique known as the "New Approach to technical harmonization and standards" was adopted with the objective of the completion of the internal market[4]. Under the "New Approach", the harmonisation of national legislation is limited to essential health and safety requirements that products placed on the Community market must meet if they are to benefit from free movement within the Community, whereas technical specifications for meeting these essential health and safety requirements are given in European harmonised standards - see comments on Recital 8 and comments on Article 5(2).
Recital No 3
Whereas Council Directive 84/529/EEC of 17 September 1984 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to electrically, hydraulically or oil-electrically operated lifts does not ensure freedom of movement for all types of lift; whereas disparities between the binding provisions of the various national systems for types of lift not covered by Directive 84/529/EEC constitute barriers to trade within the Community; whereas the national rules on lifts should therefore be harmonised;
§ 6 The former Lifts Directives
The safety of electrically operated lifts was covered by Directive 84/529/EEC the technical requirements of which were based on the European standard EN 81‑1: 1977. This Directive was amended several times, and, in particular, by Directive 90/486/EEC which extended the scope of Directive 84/529/EEC to include hydraulically operated lifts following the adoption of standard EN 81-2: 1987. These Directives were repealed from 1st July 1999 when the provisions of Directive 95/16/EC became mandatory. The "New Approach" Lifts Directive 95/16/EC has a wider scope than the repealed Directives, since it provides common essential health and safety requirements for lifts, regardless of the operating technique employed.
Recital No 4
Whereas Council Directive 84/528/EEC of 17 September 1984 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to common provisions for lifting and mechanical handling appliances serves as a framework Directive for two specific Directives, namely Directive 84/529/EEC and Council Directive 86/663/EEC of 22 December 1986 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to self-propelled industrial trucks, repealed by Council Directive 91/368/EEC of 20 June 1991 amending Directive 89/392/EEC on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to machinery;
§ 7 Repeal of Directive 84/528/EEC
Directive 84/528/EEC was a framework Directive providing the basis for two specific directives: Directive 84/529/EEC on electrical and hydraulic lifts, mentioned in the previous recital, and Directive 86/663/EEC on self-propelled industrial trucks. The Trucks Directive was repealed by the Machinery Directive, the former Lifts Directive was repealed by Directive 95/16/EC, therefore the framework Directive 84/528/EEC no longer had any purpose and could also be repealed - see comments on Article 13.
Recital No 5
Whereas on 8 June 1995 the Commission adopted recommendation No 95/216/EC to the Member States concerning improvement of safety of existing lifts;
§ 8 Regulations for existing lifts
Directive 95/16/EC is based on Article 95 of the EC Treaty which enables the Community to adopt measures to harmonise national legislation in order to ensure the free circulation of goods in the single market. It deals with the placing on the market and the putting into service of lifts and safety components for lifts and thus applies only to new products.
However, when the Directive was adopted, the European Parliament was also concerned to improve the safety of existing lifts. The safety of existing lifts is the exclusive responsibility of the Member States. However, at the same time as the Lifts Directive was adopted, the safety of existing lifts was addressed in Commission Recommendation 95/216/EC of 8 June 1995.
The fact that the Commission Recommendation 95/216/EC is mentioned in a Recital to Directive 95/16/EC indicates that it represents the wish of the three European Institutions: the Council, the European Parliament and the Commission. However, the Recommendation is not a Directive and is therefore not binding on Member States who are free to implement it as they see fit, taking account of the situation in each country and existing national legislation.
§ 9 Standards for existing lifts
The preliminary remark to the Annex of Commission recommendation 95/216/EC indicates that standards EN 81 parts 1 and 2 may be applied, whenever possible, in order to obtain numerical values relating, in particular, to dimensions, tolerances, speeds or acceleration rates.
In 2003, CEN adopted standard, EN 81-80[5], that provides a guideline for national authorities, lift owners, lift inspection bodies and maintenance companies for improving the safety of existing lifts, with the aim of bringing the safety of all existing passenger and goods-passenger lifts progressively towards today's state-of-the-art for safety.
EN 81-80 does not address the essential health and safety requirements of the Lifts Directive. It does not therefore have the same status as the harmonised standards supporting the Directive and does not confer a presumption of conformity with any Community legislation.
Recital No 6
Whereas the essential requirements of this Directive will guarantee the intended level of safety only if appropriate conformity assessment procedures, chosen from among the provisions of Council Decision 93/465/EEC of 22 July 1993 concerning the modules for the various phases of the conformity assessment procedures and the rules for the affixing and use of the CE conformity marking, which are intended to be used in the technical harmonisation directives, ensure compliance therewith;
§ 10 The Modules Decision
The Lifts Directive gives lift installers and manufacturers of safety components for lifts a wide choice of conformity assessment procedures based on the so-called "modules" set out in Council Decision 93/465/EEC 
. The Lifts Directive is thus a good example of application of the "Global approach to conformity assessment".
Recital No 7
Whereas the CE-marking must be visibly affixed to lifts or to certain safety components of lifts which meet the essential health and safety requirements of this Directive to enable them to be placed on the market;
§ 11 CE-marking
The CE-marking is the visible symbol indicating that lifts and safety components for lifts satisfy the requirements of the Directive and have been subject to the appropriate conformity assessment procedure - see comments on Article 10.
Recital No 8
Whereas this Directive defines only general essential health and safety requirements; whereas, in order to help manufacturers prove conformity with these essential requirements, it is desirable to have standards harmonised at European level concerning the prevention of risks arising from the design and installation of lifts, and also in order to enable conformity with the essential requirements to be verified; whereas such standards are drawn up at European level by private-law bodies and must retain their non-binding status; whereas, for this purpose, the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN) and the European Committee for Electrotechnical standardisation (Cenelec) are recognised as the competent bodies for adopting harmonised standards in accordance with the general guidelines for co-operation between the Commission and CEN and Cenelec signed on 13 November 1984; whereas a harmonised standard within the meaning of this Directive is a technical specification adopted by CEN and/or Cenelec on the basis of a mandate from the Commission in accordance with Council Directive 83/189/EEC of 28 March 1983 laying down a procedure for the provision of information in the field of technical standards and regulations and pursuant to the above mentioned general guidelines;
§ 12 Harmonised standards
This recital defines the notion of a harmonised standard and names the European standardisation organisations responsible for drawing up such standards. Most of the harmonised standards relating to lifts are developed by CEN.
The legal framework for European standardisation is now provided by Directive 98/34/EC [89 KB] (consolidating the provisions of Directive 83/189/EEC and its successive amendment) laying down a procedure for the provision of information in the field of technical regulations and standards. Application of harmonised standards confers a presumption of conformity with the essential health and safety requirements they cover. In order to confer this presumption of conformity, the references of the standards must be published in the Official Journal of the European Union - see comments on Article 5(2).
Recital No 9
Whereas provision should be made for transitional arrangements to enable installers to place on the market lifts manufactured before the date of implementation of this Directive;
§ 13 Transitional period
This recital recognised the need for a transitional period to enable installers and manufacturers to adapt their products to the requirements of the Directive and to enable the bodies responsible for carrying out the conformity assessment procedures to be evaluated, approved and notified by the Member States. A transitional period of two years following the date of application was allowed - see comments on Article 15.
Recital No 10
Whereas this Directive is designed to cover all risks caused by lifts and run by their users and by the occupants of the construction; whereas this Directive should therefore be regarded as a Directive within the meaning of Article 2(3) of Council Directive 89/106/EEC of 21 December 1988 on the approximation of laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States relating to construction products;
§ 14 The Construction Products Directive
This recital deals with the relationship between the Lifts Directive 95/16/EC and the Construction Products Directive 89/106/EEC - see comments on Article 14 and Preliminary remark 4 to Annex I.
Recital No 11
Whereas an agreement on a modus vivendi between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission concerning the implementing measures for acts adopted in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 189b of the EC Treaty was reached on 20 December 1994.
§ 15 Comitology
This recital refers to the agreement between the Community institutions relating to the functioning of the Committees that assist the Commission in the execution of implementing measures for certain Directives (known as "Comitology") in the framework of Article 251 of the EC Treaty (formerly Article 189 B).
It should be noted that Article 6 of the Lifts Directive was amended by Regulation 1882/2003/EC to bring the provisions relating to the Lifts Committee in line with Council
[1] OJ No C 62 of 11.3.1992, p. 4 and OJ No C 180 of 2.7.1993, p. 11.
[2] OJ No C 287 of 4.11.1992, p. 2.
[3] Opinion of the European Parliament of 29 October 1992 (OJ No C 305 of 23.11.1992, p. 114), Council common position of 16 June 1994 (OJ No C 232 of 20.8.1994, p. 1) and Decision of the European Parliament of 28 September 1994 (OJ No C 305 of 31.10.1994, p. 48).
[4] Council Resolution of 7 May 1985; Official Journal C 136, 04/06/1985 p. 1-9.
[5] EN 81-80: 2003 - Safety rules for the construction and installation of lifts - Existing lifts - Part 80: Rules for the improvement of safety of existing passenger and goods passenger lifts.
Decision 1999/468/EC on Comitology.
