Directive 94/25/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 June 1994 on the approximation of the laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States relating to recreational craft

• Published date: 30 June 1994
• Subject Matter: Technical barriers,Approximation of laws,Internal market - Principles
• Official Gazette Publication: Official Journal of the European Communities, L 164, 30 June 1994

1994L0025 — EN — 01.01.2013 — 004.001

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This document is meant purely as a documentation tool and the institutions do not assume any liability for its contents

►B DIRECTIVE 94/25/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 16 June 1994 on the approximation of the laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States relating to recreational craft (OJ L 164, 30.6.1994, p.15)

Amended by:

		Official Journal
		No	page	date
►M1	DIRECTIVE 2003/44/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL Text with EEA relevance of 16 June 2003	L 214	18	26.8.2003
►M2	REGULATION (EC) No 1882/2003 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 29 September 2003	L 284	1	31.10.2003
►M3	REGULATION (EC) No 1137/2008 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 22 October 2008	L 311	1	21.11.2008
►M4	REGULATION (EU) No 1025/2012 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 25 October 2012	L 316	12	14.11.2012

Corrected by:

►C1	Corrigendum, OJ L 127, 10.6.1995, p. 27 (1994/25)
C2	Corrigendum, OJ L 041, 15.2.2000, p. 20 (1994/25)

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▼B

DIRECTIVE 94/25/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL

of 16 June 1994

on the approximation of the laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States relating to recreational craft

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 ),

Whereas the internal market is to comprise an area without internal frontiers in which the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital is ensured;

Whereas the laws, regulations and administrative provisions in force in the various Member States relating to the safety characteristics of recreational craft differ in scope and content; whereas such disparities are liable to create barriers to trade and unequal conditions of competition within the internal market;

Whereas harmonization of national legislation is the only way in which to remove these barriers to free trade; whereas this objective cannot be satisfactorily achieved by the individual Member States; whereas this Directive merely lays down the requirements vital to freedom of movement for recreational craft;

Whereas this Directive should cover only recreational craft of a minimum length of 2,5 m and a maximum length of 24 m, derived from the ISO standards;

Whereas the removal of technical barriers in the field of recreational craft and their components, to the extent that they cannot be removed by mutual recognition of equivalence among all the Member States, should follow the new approach set out in the Council resolution of 7 May 1985 ( 4 ) which calls for the definition of essential requirements on safety and other aspects which are important for the general well-being; whereas paragraph 3 of Article 100a provides that, in its proposals, concerning health, safety, environmental protection and consumer protection, the Commission will take as a base a high level of protection; whereas the essential requirements constitute the criteria with which recreational craft, partly completed craft and their components when separate and when installed must comply;

Whereas, therefore, this Directive sets out essential requirements only; whereas, in order to facilitate the task of proving compliance with the essential requirements, harmonized European standards are necessary for recreational craft and their components as referred to in Annex II; whereas harmonized European standards are drawn up by private bodies and must retain their non-mandatory status; whereas, for this purpose, the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) and the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (Cenelec) are recognized as the bodies competent to adopt harmonized standards which follow the general guidelines for cooperation between the Commission and those two bodies, signed on 13 November 1984; whereas, for the purposes of this Directive, a harmonized standard is a technical specification (European Standard or harmonization document) adopted by one or other of those bodies, or by both, at the prompting of the Commission pursuant to 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 ( 5 ) and pursuant to the general guidelines referred to above;

Whereas, in view of the nature of the risks involved in the use of recreational craft and their components, it is necessary to establish procedures applying to the assessment of compliance with the essential requirements of the Directive; whereas these procedures must be devised in the light of the level of risk which may be inherent in recreational craft and their components; whereas, therefore, each category of conformity must be supplemented by an appropriate procedure or a choice between several equivalent procedures; whereas the procedures adopted comply with 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 harmonization Directives ( 6 );

Whereas the Council has provided for the affixing of the CE marking by either the manufacturer or his authorized representative within the Community; whereas that mark means that the recreational craft and components comply with all the essential requirements and assessment procedures provided for by the Community law applying to the product;

Whereas it is appropriate that the Member States, as provided for by Article 100a (5) of the Treaty, may take provisional measures to limit or prohibit the placing on the market and the use of recreational craft or constituent products thereof in cases where they present a particular risk to the safety of persons and, where appropriate, domestic animals or property, provided that the measures are subject to a Community control procedure;

Whereas the recipients of any decision taken as part of this Directive must be aware of the reasons behind that decision and the means of appeal open to them;

Whereas it is necessary to provide for a transitional arrangement enabling recreational craft and their components manufactured in compliance with the national regulations in force at the date of adoption of this Directive to be marketed and placed in service;

Whereas this Directive does not contain any provisions directed towards limiting the use of the recreational craft after it has been put into service;

Whereas the construction of recreational craft may have an impact on the environment to the extent that the craft may discharge polluting substances; whereas it is therefore necessary to include provisions on the protection of the environment in the Directive, in so far as those provisions concern the construction of recreational craft from the point of view of its direct impact on the environment;

Whereas the provisions of this Directive should not affect Member States' entitlement to lay down, in accordance with the Treaty, such requirements as they may deem necessary concerning navigation on certain waters for the purpose of protection of the environment, the fabric of waterways and ensuring safety on waterways, provided that this does not mean that the recreational craft is modified in a way not specified in this Directive,

HAVE ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:

CHAPTER I

▼M1

Article 1

Scope and definitions

1. This Directive shall apply:

(a) with regard to design and construction, to:

(i) recreational craft and partly completed boats;

(ii) personal watercraft;

(iii) components referred to in Annex II when placed on the Community market separately and when intended for installation;

(b) with regard to exhaust emissions, to:

(i) propulsion engines which are installed or specifically intended for installation on or in recreational craft and personal watercraft;

(ii) propulsion engines installed on or in these craft that are subject to a ‘major engine modification’;

(c) with regard to noise emissions, to:

(i) recreational craft with stern drive engines without integral exhausts or inboard propulsion engine installations;

(ii) recreational craft with stern drive engines without integral exhausts or with inboard propulsion installations which are subject to a major craft conversion and subsequently placed on the Community market within five years following conversion;

(iii) personal watercraft;

(iv) outboard engines and stern drive engines with integral exhausts intended for installation on recreational craft;

(d) for products falling under (a)(ii), (b) and (c), the provisions of this Directive shall only apply from the first placing on the market and/or putting into service after the date of entry into force of this Directive.

2. The following shall be excluded from the scope of this Directive:

(a) with regard to paragraph 1(a):

(i) craft intended solely for racing, including rowing racing boats and training rowing boats, labelled as such by the manufacturer;

(ii) canoes and kayaks, gondolas and pedalos;

(iii) sailing surfboards;

(iv) surfboards, including powered surfboards;

(v) original historical craft and individual replicas thereof designed before 1950, built predominantly with the original materials and labelled as such by the manufacturer;

(vi) experimental craft, provided that they are not subsequently placed on...