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

• Published date: 07 September 1995
• Official Gazette Publication: Official Journal of the European Communities, L 213, 7 September 1995

1995L0016 — EN — 01.01.2013 — 003.001

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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 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 (OJ L 213, 7.9.1995, p.1)

Amended by:

		Official Journal
		No	page	date
►M1	REGULATION (EC) No 1882/2003 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 29 September 2003	L 284	1	31.10.2003
►M2	DIRECTIVE 2006/42/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL Text with EEA relevance of 17 May 2006	L 157	24	9.6.2006
►M3	REGULATION (EU) No 1025/2012 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 25 October 2012	L 316	12	14.11.2012

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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

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,

Whereas Member States are responsible within their territory for the health and safety of people;

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;

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 (4) 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 harmonized;

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 (5) 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 (6), 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);

Whereas on 8 June 1995 the Commission adopted recommendation No 95/216/EC (8) to the Member States concerning improvement of safety of existing lifts;

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 harmonization directives (9), ensure compliance therewith;

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;

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 harmonized 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 Standardization (CEN) and the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (Cenelec) are recognized as the competent bodies for adopting harmonized standards in accordance with the general guidelines for cooperation between the Commission and CEN and Cenelec signed on 13 November 1984; whereas a harmonized 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 (10) and pursuant to the abovementioned general guidelines;

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;

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 (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,

HAVE ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:

CHAPTER I

Scope, placing on the market and free movement

Article 1

1. This Directive shall apply to lifts permanently serving buildings and constructions. It shall also apply to the safety components for use in such lifts listed in Annex IV.

▼M2

2. For the purposes of this Directive, ‘lift’ shall mean a lifting appliance serving specific levels, having a carrier moving along guides which are rigid and inclined at an angle of more than 15 degrees to the horizontal, intended for the transport of:

—persons,

—persons and goods,

—goods alone if the carrier is accessible, that is to say a person may enter it without difficulty, and fitted with controls situated inside the carrier or within reach of a person inside the carrier.

Lifting appliances moving along a fixed course even where they do not move along guides which are rigid shall be considered as lifts falling within the scope of this Directive.

A ‘carrier’ means a part of the lift by which persons and/or goods are supported in order to be lifted or lowered.

3. This Directive shall not apply to:

—lifting appliances whose speed is not greater than 0,15 m/s,

—construction site hoists,

—cableways, including funicular railways,

—lifts specially designed and constructed for military or police purposes,

—lifting appliances from which work can be carried out,

—mine winding gear,

—lifting appliances intended for lifting performers during artistic performances,

—lifting appliances fitted in means of transport,

—lifting appliances connected to machinery and intended exclusively for access to workstations including maintenance and inspection points on the machinery,

—rack and pinion trains,

—escalators and mechanical walkways.

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4. For the purposes of this Directive:

—the ‘installer of a lift’ shall mean the natural or legal person who takes responsibility for the design, manufacture, installation and placing on the market of the lift and who affixes the CE marking and draws up the EC declaration of conformity,

—‘placing on the market of the lift’ shall occur when the installer first makes the lift available to the user,

—‘safety component’ shall mean a component as listed in Annex IV,

—the ‘manufacturer of the safety components’ shall mean the natural or legal person who takes responsibility for the design and manufacture of the safety components and who affixes the CE marking and draws up the EC declaration of conformity,

—a ‘model lift’ shall mean a representative lift whose technical dossier shows the way in which the essential safety requirements will be met for lifts which conform to the model lift defined by objective parameters and which uses identical safety components.

All permitted variations between the model lift and the lifts forming part of the lifts derived from the model lift must be clearly specified (with maximum and minimum values) in the technical dossier.

By calculation and/or on the basis of design plans it is permitted to demonstrate the similarity of a range of equipment to satisfy the essential safety requirements.

5. Where, for lifts, the risks referred to in this Directive are wholly or partly covered by specific Directives, this Directive shall not apply or shall cease to apply in the case of such lifts and such risks as from application of those specific Directives.

Article 2

1. Member States shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that:

—lifts covered by this Directive may be placed on the market and put into service only if they are not liable to endanger the health or safety of persons or, where appropriate, the safety of property, when properly installed and maintained and used for their intended purpose.

—safety components covered by this Directive may be placed on the market and put into service only if the lifts in which they are to be installed are not liable to endanger the health or safety of persons...