THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 95 thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,
Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee(1),
Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the Treaty(2),
Whereas:
(1) Council Directive 89/173/EEC of 21 December 1988 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to certain components and characteristics of wheeled agricultural or forestry tractors(3) has been substantially amended several times(4). In the interests of clarity and rationality, the said Directive should be codified.
(2) Directive 89/173/EEC is one of the separate Directives of the EC type-approval system provided for in Council Directive 74/150/EEC, as replaced 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(5), and lays down technical prescriptions concerning the design and construction of agricultural or forestry tractors as regards certain components and characteristics. Those technical prescriptions concern the approximation of the laws of the Member States to enable the EC type-approval procedure provided for in Directive 2003/37/EC to be applied in respect of each type of tractor. Consequently, the provisions laid down in Directive 2003/37/EC relating to agricultural and forestry tractors, their trailers and interchangeable towed machinery, together with their systems, components and separate technical units, apply to this Directive.
(3) The technical requirements which tractors must fulfil in pursuance of national laws concern, inter alia, their dimensions and masses, speed governors, the protection of their drive components, projections and wheels, brake control for towed vehicles, windscreens and other glazing, the mechanical coupling between tractor and towed vehicle and the location and method of affixing statutory plates and markings to the body of the tractor.
(4) It is desirable to take into account the technical requirements adopted by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) in its corresponding regulations annexed to the Agreement of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe concerning the adoption of uniform technical prescriptions for wheeled vehicles, equipment and parts which can be fitted to and/or used on wheeled vehicles and the conditions for reciprocal recognition of approvals granted on the basis of these prescriptions(6).
(5) This Directive is 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 VII, Part B,
HAVE ADOPTED THIS DIRECTIVE:
Opinion of the European Parliament of 24 March 2009 (not yet published in the Official Journal) and Council Decision of 26 November 2009.
See Annex VII, part A.
Published as Annex I to Council Decision 97/836/EC (OJ L 346, 17.12.1997, p. 78).