Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC: What It Requires, Why It Applies Until 19 January 2027 and What Replaces It

The European Commission states that all machinery placed on the EU market before the switch must comply with the Directive.

The Directive has 29 articles, with Articles 21a to 21f inserted in 2019 and 2024, and 12 annexes.

It has applied since 29 December 2009 through the national laws that transpose it, and Article 51(2) of Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 repeals it with effect from the switch date. The rules that apply from that date are set out in the EU Machinery Regulation guide.

The sections below give the Directive's legal identity and six amendments, the seven product categories of Article 1, the six manufacturer duties of Article 5 with all 12 annexes and their successors, the Article 7 presumption, the three Article 12 procedures, the Annex XII correlation with the Regulation and the dated status as of 12 November 2026, including 79 active NANDO notifications.

What Is the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC?

The Machinery Directive, Directive 2006/42/EC, is the EU directive that harmonises the essential health and safety requirements for machinery and the other product categories of its Article 1(1), so that compliant machinery moves freely in the internal market and the EEA.

Its full title is "Directive 2006/42/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 May 2006 on machinery, and amending Directive 95/16/EC (recast)". The title names both functions of the act: a recast of the machinery rules and an amendment of Directive 95/16/EC.

A directive binds the Member States as to the result to be achieved, so the Machinery Directive reaches manufacturers through national transposition laws (Article 26(1)), not directly. Its legal basis is Article 95 of the EC Treaty, and an EEA Joint Committee decision (22007D0006) extended it to the EEA.

The European machinery directive therefore works through one national act per Member State and EEA state, while its essential health and safety requirements in Annex I stay identical in each of them.

Two articles carry the internal market aim: Article 6 is headed "Freedom of movement", and Article 7 sets the presumption of conformity that harmonised standards give.

Legal Identity: CELEX, Official Journal and Key Dates

Directive 2006/42/EC carries CELEX number 32006L0042 and was published in OJ L 157 of 9 June 2006, page 24. The text runs from page 24 to page 86 and has the ELI http://data.europa.eu/eli/dir/2006/42/oj.

The European Parliament and the Council adopted the Directive on 17 May 2006 under procedure 2001/0004(COD), on the Commission proposal 52000PC0899. It entered into force on 29 June 2006 (Article 28). Member States had to adopt and publish their transposition laws by 29 June 2008 and to apply them from 29 December 2009 (Article 26(1)).

Article 27 let Member States keep national rules for portable cartridge-operated fixing and other impact machinery until 29 June 2011. The last day of the Directive is 19 January 2027. Table 1 collects the identity data.

The 29 article headings run in a fixed order, and Annex XII of Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 gives most of them a successor. Articles 1 to 3 (scope, definitions, specific Directives) become Articles 2, 3 and 9 of the Regulation.

Articles 4 to 11 cover market surveillance, placing on the market and putting into service, freedom of movement, presumption of conformity, specific measures, the procedure for disputing a harmonised standard and the safeguard clause; their successors include Articles 8, 10 and 11, 4, 20(1), 44(3) and 43 to 45. Articles 12 to 17 (conformity procedures, partly completed machinery, notified bodies, installation and use, CE marking, non-conformity of marking) become Articles 25, 11, 26 to 42, 5, 23 and 24, and 46. Articles 18 to 29 cover confidentiality, cooperation between Member States, legal remedies, dissemination of information, the committee, penalties, the amendment of Directive 95/16/EC, repeal, transposition, the derogation, entry into force and addressees.

Predecessors, Corrigenda and the Six Amendments

Directive 2006/42/EC replaced Directive 98/37/EC, which had codified the first Machinery Directive, Council Directive 89/392/EEC of 14 June 1989. The machinery directive 98/37/EC was published in OJ L 207 of 23 July 1998, page 1, and Directive 89/392/EEC in OJ L 183 of 29 June 1989, page 9.

Article 25 of Directive 2006/42/EC repealed Directive 98/37/EC as from 29 December 2009, in the wording of the corrigendum published in OJ L 76 of 16 March 2007, page 35. That corrigendum, R(02), is one of seven corrigenda, R(01) to R(07); the other six concern single language versions only (Slovak, Maltese, Bulgarian, French and Czech).

Six acts amend the Directive, numbered M1 to M6 in the consolidated version, as listed below.

1. Regulation (EC) No 596/2009 (M1) adapted the Directive's committee procedure to the regulatory procedure with scrutiny.
2. Directive 2009/127/EC (M2) added pesticide application machinery: point (m) of Article 2 and section 2.4 of Annex I, applied from 15 December 2011.
3. Regulation (EU) No 167/2013 (M3) rewrote the agricultural and forestry tractor exclusion from 1 January 2016.
4. Directive 2014/33/EU (M4) ended the validity of Article 24, the amendment of Directive 95/16/EC, on 20 April 2016.
5. Regulation (EU) 2019/1243 (M5) inserted Article 21a on delegated acts amending Annex V.
6. Directive (EU) 2024/2749 (M6) inserted Article 2 points (n) and (o), Articles 21b to 21f and Article 22(4), applied from 30 May 2026.

Official Text and Consolidated Versions (PDF)

The binding text of Directive 2006/42/EC is the Official Journal version on EUR-Lex, available as HTML and PDF, and the latest consolidated version is 02006L0042-20260530. Consolidated versions are documentation tools; the authentic text is the one published in the Official Journal, read together with its corrigenda.

The Commission's Guide to application of the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC, Edition 2.3 (April 2024), an update of the 2nd edition, runs from §1 to §418 and is non-binding.

The consolidated version incorporates all six amendments, M1 to M6, into one reading text. No copy of the Directive is reproduced here: each EUR-Lex row of the table opens the official file, from which the PDF can be downloaded.

Table 2 lists the machinery directive PDF sources with their references and their status as of 12 November 2026.

Is the Machinery Directive Still Valid?

Yes: Directive 2006/42/EC applies until 19 January 2027 through the national laws that transpose it, and Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 repeals it with effect from 20 January 2027 (Article 51(2) of the Regulation, as corrected).

The 2006/42/EC directive is therefore still valid on 12 November 2026 for every machine placed on the market or put into service in the EU.

From the switch date, references to the Directive in other acts are read as references to the Regulation according to the correlation table in Annex XII of the Regulation. The Commission's machinery page states: "All machinery placed on the EU market before 20 January 2027 must comply with the current Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC".

Manufacturers may state on the declaration that such machinery also conforms with Regulation (EU) 2023/1230, where applicable. Each date of the switch is set out in the Machinery Regulation timeline.

No parallel period exists in which a manufacturer may choose between the two acts. Products placed on the market in conformity with the Directive before the switch may still be made available afterwards, and Member States may not impede that (Article 52(1) of the Regulation).

EC type-examination certificates and approval decisions issued under Article 12 of the Directive "shall remain valid until they expire" (Article 52(2)), so no certificate lapses on the switch date itself.

One part of the Regulation already reaches Directive products. Chapter VI of the Regulation (Articles 43 to 46, market surveillance and safeguard procedures) has applied since 19 July 2023, mutatis mutandis, to products placed on the market under the Directive, instead of Article 11 of the Directive (Article 52(1), second sentence, as corrected). A national authority that finds a non-compliant Directive machine today follows the Regulation's procedure.

The deciding moment is the placing on the market or putting into service of each product. Every product placed on the market or put into service from the switch date must meet the Regulation, and a product placed on the market before that date stays lawful under the Directive.

The declaration, the technical file and the conformity procedure follow the act that applied at that moment.

Products Covered by Directive 2006/42/EC (Article 1)

Directive 2006/42/EC covers seven product categories listed in Article 1(1)(a) to (g): machinery, interchangeable equipment, safety components, lifting accessories, chains, ropes and webbing, removable mechanical transmission devices and partly completed machinery, and Article 1(2)(a) to (l) excludes 12 groups of products. What the Machinery Directive covers is therefore broader than "machinery" in the narrow sense.

Article 2 defines the terms in 12 lettered points, (a) to (l), in the original text; Directive 2009/127/EC added point (m) and Directive (EU) 2024/2749 points (n) and (o), so 15 points stand today.

Machinery itself is defined in Article 2(a) through 5 indents. Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 keeps the same seven categories but lists 17 exclusions in Article 2(2)(a) to (q). The question of which products the Machinery Regulation covers from 20 January 2027 is set out separately.

The 12 exclusions of Article 1(2) are: (a) safety components intended as spare parts supplied by the original manufacturer; (b) specific equipment for fairgrounds and amusement parks; (c) machinery for nuclear purposes; (d) weapons, including firearms; (e) means of transport, except machinery mounted on them; (f) seagoing vessels and mobile offshore units; (g) machinery for military or police purposes; (h) machinery for research purposes for temporary use in laboratories; (i) mine winding gear; (j) machinery to move performers during artistic performances; (k) electrical and electronic products covered by Directive 2006/95/EC, such as household appliances and ordinary office machinery; and (l) high-voltage switchgear, control gear and transformers.

Regulation (EU) No 167/2013 rewrote the tractor indent of point (e) from 1 January 2016. Article 2(i) and (j) define only the manufacturer and the authorised representative; the Directive defines no importer or distributor.

What the Directive Requires: Six Manufacturer Duties under Article 5

Article 5(1) of Directive 2006/42/EC sets six steps before machinery is placed on the market or put into service: meet the Annex I requirements, keep the Annex VII technical file available, provide the instructions, apply an Article 12 procedure, draw up the EC declaration of conformity and affix the CE marking. The six duties, in the order of Article 5(1)(a) to (f), are listed below.

1. (a) Meet the essential health and safety requirements of Annex I. General principle 1 of Annex I states that "the manufacturer of machinery or his authorised representative must ensure that a risk assessment is carried out in order to determine the health and safety requirements which apply to the machinery"; section 1.1.2(b) orders the measures as inherently safe design, then protective measures, then information on residual risks.
2. (b) Keep the technical file of Annex VII, Part A available. The file is kept for at least 10 years from the date of manufacture or, for series manufacture, of the last unit produced; it need not be located in the Community nor be permanently available in material form, but failure to present it on a duly reasoned request may be sufficient grounds for doubting conformity.
3. (c) Provide the instructions. Under section 1.7.4 of Annex I they are written in the official Community language or languages of the Member State concerned, marked "Original instructions" or "Translation of the original instructions", and cover 22 content points, (a) to (v); the format rules for machinery instructions change under the Regulation.
4. (d) Apply the conformity procedure of Article 12.
5. (e) Draw up the EC declaration of conformity under Annex II, 1.A. It has 10 particulars, including the person authorised to compile the technical file, who must be established in the Community, and the original is kept for at least 10 years from the last date of manufacture.
6. (f) Affix the CE marking under Article 16 and Annex III. The marking is at least 5 mm high, a minimum that may be waived for small-scale machinery.

Article 5(3) adds that the manufacturer or his authorised representative has, or has access to, the means necessary to ensure that the machinery satisfies the essential health and safety requirements.

The noise declaration thresholds of 70 dB(A), 63 Pa (130 dB re 20 µPa) and 80 dB(A) carry over unchanged into Annex III of the Regulation. The Directive's 2.5 m/s2 threshold for declaring hand-arm vibration (Annex I, section 2.2.1.1) does not, because the Regulation sets no threshold for that declaration.

Each annex of the Directive has a successor in the Regulation and an owner page that explains the new rule. The machinery directive annexes run from the Annex I requirements to the Annex XII correlation table. The full sequence of Machinery Regulation compliance steps from 20 January 2027 has its own page.

Table 3 maps the 12 annexes of Directive 2006/42/EC to their successors under Annex XII of Regulation (EU) 2023/1230.

Presumption of Conformity: Article 7 and the Official Journal List

Machinery manufactured in conformity with a harmonised standard whose reference is published in the Official Journal of the European Union is presumed to comply with the essential health and safety requirements that the standard covers (Article 7(2) of Directive 2006/42/EC).

The presumption reaches only the requirements the standard covers; for the rest, the manufacturer shows conformity by other means. Applying a harmonised standard stays voluntary under the Directive.

The list for the Directive is Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2023/1586 of 26 July 2023 (OJ L 194, 2.8.2023, p. 45), amended seven times, most recently by Implementing Decision (EU) 2026/2015 of 4 September 2026.

Article 10 of the Directive lets a Member State or the Commission dispute a harmonised standard through a formal objection, with six possible outcomes: publish, not publish, publish with restriction, maintain, maintain with restriction or withdraw the reference.

Harmonised status and presumption are two separate steps: a standard is harmonised because a European standardisation body adopts it on the basis of a Commission request (definition in Article 2(l) of the Directive), and publication of its reference in the Official Journal is what gives the presumption.

Article 2 of Implementing Decision (EU) 2026/2015 repeals the Directive list with effect from 20 January 2027, so the presumption under Article 7(2) ends with the Directive itself.

Under the Regulation, the same mechanism sits in Article 20(1), and a standard gives presumption there only once its reference is published under Regulation (EU) 2023/1230. What each harmonised standard for machinery covers is set out on the standards page.

Article 12: Three Conformity Procedures and the Annex IV Split

Article 12 of Directive 2006/42/EC requires internal checks (Annex VIII) for machinery not listed in Annex IV; Annex IV machinery built to harmonised standards covering all relevant requirements may use internal checks, EC type-examination with Annex VIII point 3, or full quality assurance (Article 12(3)), and other Annex IV machinery only the last two (Article 12(4)).

The split therefore turns on two facts: whether the machine is listed in Annex IV, and whether harmonised standards cover all of its relevant requirements.

The procedure is applied by "the manufacturer or his authorised representative" (Article 12(1)). Annex IV of the Directive lists 23 points of machinery and safety components, such as logic units to ensure safety functions (point 21). The Directive offers no unit verification. Table 4 sets the routes side by side.

An EC type-examination certificate is reviewed every five years at the manufacturer's request and can be renewed for a further five years (Annex IX point 9.3). The manufacturer and the notified body keep the certificate and the technical file for 15 years from the date of issue (Annex IX points 4 and 9.3).

Under full quality assurance, periodic audits ensure a full reassessment every three years (Annex X point 3.3), and the notified body's number follows the CE marking only after that procedure, under Article 12(3)(c) or 12(4)(b) (Annex III).

The manufacturer keeps the full quality assurance documents for ten years from the last date of manufacture (Annex X point 4). How conformity assessment under the Machinery Regulation replaces these routes is explained on its own page.

The Commission's impact assessment of 21 April 2021, SWD(2021) 82, estimated how assessments split under the Directive: about 80 % self-assessment of machinery outside Annex IV, 10 % self-assessment of Annex IV machinery, 8 % EC type-examination and 2 % full quality assurance.

These are 2021 estimates, not current figures. The Commission publishes the list of notified bodies under the Directive in the Official Journal for information (Article 14(4)).

What Replaces the Directive on 20 January 2027

Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 replaces Directive 2006/42/EC from 20 January 2027 as a regulation that applies directly in every Member State without national transposition, and its Annex XII maps each article and annex of the Directive to its successor.

A directive needs a national law in each Member State; the Regulation is one text with the same wording everywhere.

The Regulation of 14 June 2023 on machinery (CELEX 32023R1230, OJ L 165, 29.6.2023, p. 1) has been in force since 19 July 2023. Its Annex I replaces Annex IV of the Directive: the 23 Directive points become 6 Part A and 19 Part B points, 25 in total.

Former Annex IV points 14, 15, 16 and 18 become Part A points 1 to 4, Part A points 5 and 6 are new, and unit verification (module G) is new.

The other Directive points move to Part B: point 21, logic units to ensure safety functions, becomes Part B point 17, and point 17, devices for the lifting of persons or of persons and goods involving a hazard of falling from a vertical height of more than three metres, becomes Part B point 14. Table 5 compares ten points of the two acts.

Eight Directive provisions and one annex have no successor in the Regulation: Articles 4(3) and (4), 8(2), 9, 19, 20, 24, 26 and 27, and Annex III, whose CE marking rules move to Articles 23 and 24. The retention rule changes from the Directive's clock to at least 10 years after placing on the market or putting into service (Article 10(3) of the Regulation).

One particular of the EC declaration also ends: the name and address of the person authorised to compile the technical file (Annex II, 1.A, point 2) has no counterpart in Annex V, Part A of the Regulation. Every change is listed in Machinery Regulation vs Machinery Directive.

Where Directive 2006/42/EC Stands on 2026-11-12

As of 12 November 2026, Directive 2006/42/EC is in its latest consolidated version 02006L0042-20260530, NANDO lists 79 active notifications under it, and the Official Journal list of harmonised standards drawn up for it is repealed with effect from 20 January 2027. These three status points carry the date because each changes with the switch.

Directive (EU) 2024/2749 has applied since 30 May 2026, after its transposition deadline of 29 May 2026. The repealing act is Implementing Decision (EU) 2026/2015 of 4 September 2026 (C/2026/6163, OJ L, 2026/2015, 7.9.2026), and the list it repeals is Implementing Decision (EU) 2023/1586 (C/2023/4914).

As of 12 November 2026, no harmonised standard is cited in the Official Journal under Regulation (EU) 2023/1230, and NANDO lists 36 active notifications under the Regulation.

The Commission proposed COM(2025) 504 on 21 May 2025 (procedure 2025/0134(COD)), a regulation amending Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 and six other acts as regards digitalisation and common specifications; it is a proposal, pending as of 12 November 2026.

Coreper confirmed the text agreed with Parliament negotiators on 26 June 2026, Parliament's IMCO committee approved it on 14 July 2026, and Parliament's first-reading vote is still to come, as tracked under Machinery Regulation amendments.

What Sits Next to Directive 2006/42/EC

Directive 2006/42/EC sits next to its own regime for partly completed machinery, the other product directives that can apply to the same machine and the national laws that transpose it. Each of the three has a counterpart under the Regulation, and each changes form on 20 January 2027.

Partly Completed Machinery under the Directive

Article 13 of Directive 2006/42/EC sets the procedure for partly completed machinery: the Annex VII Part B documentation, the Annex VI assembly instructions and a declaration of incorporation under Annex II 1.B with 8 particulars.

Article 2(g) describes partly completed machinery as "almost machinery" and adds the sentence "A drive system is partly completed machinery", which Article 3(10) of the Regulation does not repeat; Article 13 becomes Article 11 of the Regulation, and Annex VI becomes Annex XI.

The Regulation's declaration of incorporation has 9 points (Annex V, Part B) against the Directive's 8. The duties for partly completed machinery under the Regulation are set out in full on their own page.

Other Product Directives Applied Alongside It

Article 3 of Directive 2006/42/EC, headed "Specific Directives", excludes hazards covered more specifically by other Union directives, and that article becomes Article 9 of the Regulation.

Regulation (EU) 2019/1020 on market surveillance, which has applied since 16 July 2021, names Directive 2006/42/EC in Article 4(5) and in Annex I, point 19, so its general market surveillance rules reach Directive machinery as well. The other EU product laws that apply together with the Machinery Regulation are compared separately.

National Transposition and Penalties (Articles 23 and 26)

Member States had to adopt and publish their transposition laws and notify their penalty rules by 29 June 2008, and to apply them from 29 December 2009 (Articles 23 and 26(1) of Directive 2006/42/EC).

In Germany, the 9. ProdSV expires at the end of 19 January 2027 (§ 10 9. ProdSV), and the MaschinenDG of 2 December 2025 (BGBl. 2025 I Nr. 302), in force since 6 December 2025, applies in part from 20 January 2027 (§ 12); Switzerland's MaschV of 2 April 2008 (SR 819.14) refers to the Directive. The machinery rules by country are covered on the country pages.