Pressure equipment: harmonisation of essential safety requirements

The amended Commission proposal incorporated the amendments of the European Parliament concerning: - the need to explain as clearly as possible the requirements set out in the annexes in order to enable all users, including SMEs, to comply with them easily; - the exclusion from the scope of the directive of pressure equipment designed to hold non-dangerous fluids (the directive would apply to the design, manufacture and conformity assessment of pressure equipment with a maximum allowable pressure of 0.5 bar, when it was designed to hold dangerous fluids); - improvements to the list of technical requirements, providing greater clarity or a higher level of safety; - the responsibilities of the competent authorities of the Member States, with a view to ensuring the protection of persons at exhibitions; - the removal of the possibility of referring to national standards in cases where there were no harmonised standards; - the harmonisation of the requirements relating to the user inspectorates with the requirements that applied to notified bodies, which should in fact be the same. However, the Commission did not accept the amendments concerning: - the incorporation of Directive 87/404/EEC relating to simple pressure vessels in the directive on pressure equipment; - the definition of accessories; - the inclusion of military equipment, equipment designed for nuclear applications, equipment used to extract oil or gas and pressure equipment used to transport dangerous products; - the clarification that the measures on the protection of workers should not result in any obstacles to trade; - the establishment of a special committee composed of technical experts; - an additional call to use harmonised standards; - the information to be provided in the context of restriction or refusal procedures; - the increase in restrictive measures. �