Amendment of the Outdoor Directive

Directive 2000/14/EC on the noise emission in the environment by equipment for use outdoors has been in force since 1 January 2002. The aim of the regulation is to provide the market with quieter products.

Articles 12 and 13 of the Directive list numerous types of machinery and equipment intended for use outdoors. The Directive only covers equipment placed on the market or put into service that is suitable as a whole for its intended use.

The directive requires that all machines and equipment that fall within its scope be labelled with a CE marking and the sound power level. This is intended to provide future users with sufficient information about the noise emission of the respective machine.

This so-called "Outdoor Directive" primarily concerns construction machinery, but compressors, aerial work platforms, road sweepers, cranes and refuse collection vehicles also fall within the scope of application, for example. For all these machines, the directive specifies measurement methods and operating conditions for determining the sound power level. The manufacturer or his authorised representative established in the Community draws up an EC declaration of conformity for each type of machinery or equipment manufactured and affixes the CE marking, which must also include the guaranteed sound power level.

The Outdoor Directive 2000/14/EC is a piece of legislation based on the Old Approach. Technical requirements and specifications, including references to standards, were directly prescribed in the legal text. This approach does not correspond to the New Approach, in which only basic health and safety requirements are laid down in directives or regulations.
 

The first step is to amend Annex III by means of a delegated act, with a view to subsequently revising Directive 2001/14/EC as a whole.

Annex III contains methods for measuring airborne noise to be used to determine the sound power levels of the equipment covered by this Directive for the purposes of the conformity assessment procedure of this Directive.

Part A of this new delegated act provides for the following:

• Manufacturers or their authorised representatives in the Union shall use the basic noise emission standard EN ISO 3744:2010 to determine the sound power level L_WA, subject to the general additions set out in this Part A.
• Manufacturers or their authorised representatives in the Union shall apply all provisions of standard EN ISO 3744:2010, unless otherwise specified in this Part A or in the applicable noise measurement standard set out in Part B of this Annex.

In Part B, noise measurement standards for various equipment and machinery are additionally specified or presented as a description of the test and operating conditions to be applied. This also includes the specification:

• the test environment,
• the value for the environmental correction (K_2A),
• the shape and dimensions of the measuring surface,
• the number and locations of the microphones,the requirements for setting up and fixing the devices and machines and
• the method for calculating the sound power levels in the event that different tests are required under different operating conditions

Examples of standards from Part B, which have also been published in the EU Official Journal in accordance with the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC, are:

• Elevating work platforms with internal combustion engine: EN 280-1:2022, section 4.12.2
• Construction site band sawing machines: EN ISO 19085-16:2021, clause 6.2.2. The measurement method of this standard shall be applied on the basis of EN ISO 3744:2010.
• Road sweepers: EN 17106-2:2021 section 4.3
• Rollers: EN 474-13:2022 section 4.6

The regulation will enter into force on the twentieth day after its final publication in the Official Journal of the EU and will apply from 22 May 2025. As it is a regulation, its application is directly binding in every member state.

An exact date for the entire revision of Directive 2000/14/EC has not yet been communicated. However, according to the EU Commission, this is to be done in the near future.

In consultations with the EU Commission, a majority of industry associations were in favour of an"amendment of Annex III through a delegated act swiftly followed by a complete revision of the Directive.". A more precise timeframe for the revision is not currently available, but will be added to this article once it has been announced.

You can download the proposal for the future delegated act at the following link: