In its report dated 8 July 2004, this Working Group concluded that a number of the stage II limits due to be mandatorily applied as from 3 January 2006 were not technically feasible. However, the intention was never to restrict the placing on the market or putting into service of equipment solely based on technical feasibility.

It is therefore necessary to provide that certain types of equipment listed in Article 12 of Directive 2000/14/EC, which would not be able to meet the stage II limits by 3 January 2006 solely for technical reasons, can still be placed on the market and/or put into service as from that date.

The experience of the first five years of application of Directive 2000/14/EC has demonstrated that more time is needed to fulfil the provisions under Articles 16 and 20 thereof and highlighted the need to review that Directive with a view to its possible amendment, in particular with respect to the stage II limits referred to therein. It is therefore necessary to extend by two years the deadline for submission of the report to the European Parliament and to the Council on the Commission’s experience in implementing and administering Directive 2000/14/EC as referred to in Article 20(1) of that Directive.

Article 20(3) of Directive 2000/14/EC provides for the submission, by the Commission, of a report to the European Parliament and to the Council on whether, and to what extent, technical progress allows a reduction of limit values for lawnmowers and lawn trimmers/lawn-edge trimmers. In view of the fact that the obligations contained in Article 20(1) of that Directive are more prescriptive than those in Article 20(3), and in order to avoid duplication of effort, it is appropriate to include these types of equipment in the general report provided for in Article 20(1) of that Directive. Consequently, the separate reporting obligation in Article 20(3) of that Directive should be deleted.

Since the objective of this Directive, namely, to ensure the ongoing functioning of the internal market by requiring equipment used outdoors to comply with harmonised environmental noise provisions, cannot be sufficiently achieved by Member States and can therefore, by reason of the scale and effects of the proposed action, be better achieved at Community level, the Community may adopt measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set out in Article 5 of the Treaty. In accordance with the principle of proportionality, as set out in that Article, this Directive does not go beyond what is necessary in order to achieve this objective, in that its scope is confined to those types of equipment for which compliance with the stage II limits is presently impossible for technical reasons.

Directive 2000/14/EC should therefore be amended accordingly,