CELEX: 51979FC0533
Language: en
Date: 2007-03-21
Title: Proposal for a Directive …/…/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of […] on the coupling device and the reverse of wheeled agricultural or forestry tractors (codified version)

EN

|[pic]                     |COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES                                                                           |

                                        Brussels,
                                        COM

                                                                  Proposal for a

                                          DIRECTIVE …/…/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL

                                                                      of […]

                               on the coupling device and the reverse of wheeled agricultural or forestry tractors

                                                                (Codified version)

                                                              EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM

1.    In the context of a people’s Europe, the Commission attaches great importance to simplifying and clarifying Community law so as to make  it
       clearer and more accessible to the ordinary citizen, thus giving him new opportunities and the chance to make use of the  specific  rights
       it gives him.

       This aim cannot be achieved so long as numerous provisions that have  been  amended  several  times,  often  quite  substantially,  remain
       scattered, so that they must be sought partly in the original instrument and partly in later amending ones.  Considerable  research  work,
       comparing many different instruments, is thus needed to identify the current rules.

       For this reason a codification of rules that have frequently been amended  is  also  essential  if  Community  law  is  to  be  clear  and
       transparent.

2.    On 1 April 1987 the Commission therefore decided[1] to instruct its staff that all legislative acts should be codified after no  more  than
       ten amendments, stressing that this is a minimum requirement and that departments should endeavour to codify at even shorter intervals the
       texts for which they are responsible, to ensure that the Community rules are clear and readily understandable.

3.    The Conclusions of the Presidency of the Edinburgh  European  Council  (December 1992)  confirmed  this[2],  stressing  the  importance  of
       codification as it offers certainty as to the law applicable to a given matter at a given time.

       Codification must be undertaken in full compliance with the normal Community legislative procedure.

       Given that no changes of substance may be made to the instruments affected by codification, the European Parliament, the Council  and  the
       Commission have agreed, by an interinstitutional agreement dated 20 December 1994, that an accelerated procedure may be used for the fast-
       track adoption of codification instruments.

4.    The purpose of this proposal is to undertake a codification of Council Directive 79/533/EEC of 17 May 1979  on  the  approximation  of  the
       laws of the Member States relating to the coupling device and the reverse  of  wheeled  agricultural  or  forestry  tractors[3].  The  new
       Directive will supersede the various acts incorporated in it[4]; this proposal fully preserves the content of the acts being codified  and
       hence does no more than bring them together with only such formal amendments as are required by the codification exercise itself.

5.    The codification proposal was drawn up on the basis of a preliminary consolidation, in all official languages, of Directive 79/533/EEC  and
       the instruments amending it, carried out by the Office for Official Publications  of  the  European  Communities,  by  means  of  a  data-
       processing system. Where the Articles have been given new numbers, the correlation between the old and the new numbers is shown in a table
       contained in Annex IV to the codified Directive.

                                            ê 79/533/EEC (adapted)

                                                                  Proposal for a

                                          DIRECTIVE …/…/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL

                                                                      of […]

                               on the coupling device and the reverse of wheeled agricultural or forestry tractors

                                                            (Text with EEA relevance)

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article Ö 95 Õ thereof,

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,

Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee[5],

Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the Treaty[6],

Whereas:

                                            ê 

   1) Council Directive 79/533/EEC of 17 May 1979 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the coupling device  and  the
      reverse of wheeled agricultural or forestry tractors[7] laid down technical prescriptions concerning the design and construction of wheeled
      agricultural or forestry tractors as regards the coupling device and the reverse. These technical prescriptions concerned the approximation
      of the laws of the Member States to allow for the EC type-approval procedure established by Directive 2003/37/EC of the European Parliament
      and of the Council of 26 May 2003 on type-approval  of  agricultural  or  forestry  tractors,  their  trailers  and  interchangeable  towed
      machinery, together with their systems, components and separate technical units and repealing Directive 74/150/EEC[8],  to  be  applied  in
      respect of each type of tractor. Directive 79/533/EEC has been substantially amended several times[9]. In  the  interests  of  clarity  and
      rationality the said Directive should be codified.

                                            ê 79/533/EEC Recital 2 (adapted)

   2) Ö This Directive is one of the separate Directives of the EC type-approval procedure provided for in  Directive  2003/37/EC.  Consequently,
      the provisions laid down in Directive 2003/37/EC relating to agricultural or forestry tractors, their trailers  and  interchangeable  towed
      machinery, together with their vehicle systems components and separate technical units apply to this Directive. Õ

                                            ê 

   3) This Directive should be without prejudice to the obligations of the Member States relating  to  the  time-limits  for  transposition  into
      national law and application of the Directives set out in Annex III, Part B,

                                            ê 79/533/EEC

HAVE ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:

                                                                    Article 1

1. ‘Agricultural or forestry tractor’ means any motor vehicle, fitted with wheels or endless tracks and having  at  least  two  axles,  the  main
function of which lies in its tractive power and which is specially designed to tow, push, carry or power certain tools,  machinery  or  trailers
intended for agricultural or forestry use. It may be equipped to carry a load and passengers.

                                            ê 82/890/EEC Art. 1(1) (adapted)
                                            è1 97/54/EC Art. 1

2. This Directive shall apply only to tractors defined in paragraph 1 which are equipped with pneumatic tyres and have a maximum design speed  of
between 6 and è1 40 km/h ç.

                                            ê 79/533/EEC

                                                                    Article 2

No Member State may refuse to grant EC type-approval or national type-approval of a tractor on grounds relating to the coupling device or to  the
reverse if these satisfy the requirements set out in Annexes I and II.

                                                                    Article 3

                                            ê 79/533/EEC (adapted)

No Member State may refuse the registration or prohibit the sale, entry into service or use of tractors  on  grounds  relating  to  the  coupling
device or to the reverse, if these satisfy the requirements set out in Annexes I and II.

                                                                    Article 4

Ö The Õ amendments necessary to adapt the requirements of Annexes Ö I and II Õ to Ö take account of Õ technical  progress  shall  be  adopted  in
accordance with the procedure Ö referred to Õ in Article Ö 20 (2) Õ of Directive Ö 2003/37/EC Õ .

                                                                    Article 5

Member States shall communicate to the Commission the texts of the main provisions of national law which they adopt in the field covered by  this
Directive.

                                            ê 

                                                                    Article 6

Directive 79/533/EEC, as amended by the Directives listed in Annex III, Part A, is repealed, without prejudice to the obligations of  the  Member
States relating to the time-limits for transposition into national law and application of the Directives set out in Annex III, Part B.

References to the repealed Directive shall be construed as references to this Directive and shall be read  in  accordance  with  the  correlation
table in Annex IV.

                                                                    Article 7

This Directive shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

It shall apply from [...].

                                            ê 79/533/EEC Art. 6

                                                                    Article 8

This Directive is addressed to the Member States.

Done at Brussels, […]

For the European Parliament  For the Council
The President    The President
[…]   […]

                                            ê 79/533/EEC

                                                                     ANNEX I

                                                                 COUPLING DEVICE

1.    Number

       Every tractor must have a special device to which it must be possible to attach a connection such as a tow-bar or a  tow-rope  for  towing
       purposes.

2.    Position

       The device must be fitted to the front of the tractor, which must be equipped with a coupling pin.

3.    Design

                                            ê 1999/58/EC Art. 1 pt. 1

       The device shall be of the slotted-jaw type. The opening at the centre of the locking pin shall be 60 mm + 0,5/- 1,5 mm and the  depth  of
       the jaw measured from the centre of the pin shall be 62 mm ± 0,5 mm.

                                            ê 79/533/EEC (adapted)

       The coupling pin must have a diameter of 30 + 1.5 mm and be fitted with a device preventing it from leaving its seating  during  use.  The
       securing device must be non-detachable.

       The tolerance of + 1.5 referred to above should not be regarded as a manufacturing tolerance but as a  permissible  variation  in  nominal
       dimensions for pins of different designs.

                                                                  _____________

                                                                     ANNEX II

                                                                     REVERSE

All tractors must be equipped with a device for reversing which can be operated from the driving position.

                                                                  _____________

                                            é

                                                                    ANNEX III

                                                                      Part A

                                                Repealed Directive with its successive amendments
                                                            (referred to in Article 6)

|Council Directive 79/533/EEC                                          |                                                            |
|(OJ L 145, 13.6.1979, p. 20)                                          |                                                            |
|Council Directive 82/890/EEC                                     |Only as regards the references made in Article 1(1) to Directive          |
|(OJ L 378, 31.12.1982, p. 45)                                    |79/533/EEC                                                                |
|Directive 97/54/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council |Only as regards the references made in the first indent of Article 1 to   |
|(OJ L 277, 10.10.1997, p. 24)                                    |Directive 79/533/EEC                                                      |
|Commission Directive 1999/58/EC                                  |                                                                          |
|(OJ L 148, 15.6.1999, p. 37)                                     |                                                                          |

                                                                      Part B

                                     List of time-limits for transposition into national law and application
                                                            (referred to in Article 6)

|Directive                                     |Time-limit for transposition                  |Date of application                           |
|79/533/EEC                                    |21 November 1980                              |                                              |
|82/890/EEC                                    |21 June 1984                                  |                                              |
|97/54/EC                                      |22 September 1998                             |23 September 1998                             |
|1999/58/EC                                    |30 June 2000(*)                               |                                              |

(*) In compliance with Article 2 of Directive 1999/58/EC:

“1.   From 1 July 2000, Member States may not:

         – refuse to grant EC-type approval, to issue the document provided for in the third indent of Article 10(1)  of  Directive  74/150/EEC,
           or to grant national type-approval, in respect of a type of tractor, or

         – prohibit the entry into service of tractors,

       if the tractors in question comply with the requirements of Directive 79/533/EEC, as amended by this Directive.

2.    From 1 January 2001, Member States:

         – may no longer issue the document provided for in the third indent of Article 10(1) of Directive 74/150/EEC in respect of  a  type  of
           tractor which does not meet the requirements of Directive 79/533/EEC, as amended by this Directive,

         – may refuse to grant national type-approval in respect of a type of  tractor  which  does  not  meet  the  requirements  of  Directive
           79/533/EEC, as amended by this Directive.”

                                                                  _____________

                                                                     ANNEX IV

                                                                Correlation Table

|Directive 79/533/EEC                                                 |This Directive                                                       |
|Articles 1 to 4                                                      |Articles 1 to 4                                                      |
|Article 5(1)                                                         |-                                                                    |
|Article 5(2)                                                         |Article 5                                                            |
|-                                                                    |Articles 6 and 7                                                     |
|Article 6                                                            |Article 8                                                            |
|Annex I                                                              |Annex I                                                              |
|Annex II                                                             |Annex II                                                             |
|-                                                                    |Annex III                                                            |
|-                                                                    |Annex IV                                                             |

                                                                  _____________

                                                             -----------------------
[1]   COM(87) 868 PV.
[2]   See Annex 3 to Part A of the Conclusions.
[3]   Carried out pursuant to the Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and the  Council  –  Codification  of  the  Acquis
      communautaire, COM(2001) 645 final.
[4]   See Annex III, Part A of this proposal.
[5]   OJ C […], […], p. […].
[6]   OJ C […], […], p. […].
[7]   OJ L 145, 13.6.1979, p. 20. Directive as last amended by Commission Directive 1999/58/EC (OJ L 148, 15.6.1999, p. 37).
[8]   OJ L 171, 9.7.2003, p. 1. Directive amended by Council Directive 2004/66/EC (OJ L 168, 1.5.2004, p. 35).
[9]   See Annex III, Part A.