Orgalime answer to the Inception Impact Assessment on the revision of the Outdoor Noise Directive 2000/14/EC

The sector represented by Orgalime includes a wide variety of manufacturing companies – mostly SMEs – that produce equipment used outdoors, such as garden equipment machinery, cranes and lifting equipment, and equipment used in the construction sector more generally.

In the interest of better regulation, we believe that European industry needs a clearer and fully harmonised framework – and so we welcome the European Commission’s evaluation of the Outdoor Noise Directive (OND) within the scope of the REFIT programme. We have submitted a number of comments that we hope will be taken into account during this evaluation. Our recommendations include:

• Align the OND to the New Legislative Framework
• Turn the Directive into a Regulation
• No extension of the scope of the new legislation
• Enable self-certification for all categories of products
• Replace the database by another means to inform the end user
• Test code assessment
• Effective market surveillance

For more details, and to read our answers to the Commission’s proposed policy options, download the full position paper.