The new Machinery Regulation, in plain words

Key dates

1. 29/06/2023Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 published in the Official Journal of the EU (L 165).
2. 20/01/2024The rules on notified bodies apply.
3. 20/10/2026Deadline for Member States to notify the Commission of their rules on penalties.
4. 20/01/2027The Regulation applies in general. Directive 2006/42/EC is repealed.

The terms you need

Definitions are summarised in plain language. The official text prevails for the legal definitions.

Machinery and partly completed machinery

Partly completed machinery cannot perform a specific application on its own and must be incorporated into a machine: it comes with a declaration of incorporation and assembly instructions instead of a declaration of conformity.

Manufacturer

Whoever designs and builds the machine, or has it designed and built, and places it on the market under their own name or trademark. Responsible for conformity and documentation.

Placing on the market

The first making available of the individual machine on the EU market. What counts is the date of the single serial number, not of the model.

Original instructions and translations

The instructions drafted or verified by the manufacturer are the original instructions. Versions in other languages are translations of the original instructions and must be marked as such.

EU declaration of conformity

The document in which the manufacturer declares that the machine meets the applicable requirements. From 20/01/2027 it must refer to the Regulation, no longer to the Directive.

Substantial modification

A physical or digital modification not foreseen by the manufacturer that affects safety. Whoever makes it may be considered the manufacturer, with all the obligations. This also concerns integrators and retrofitters.

Technical documentation

The documentation that demonstrates conformity. It must be kept and made available to the authorities for the period set by the Regulation.

Instructions and declaration in digital form

According to the sources consulted, the Regulation allows instructions for use to be supplied digitally under these conditions:

1. Supplying instructions digitally is an option for the manufacturer, not an obligation.
2. The machine, the packaging or an accompanying document must indicate how to access the digital instructions, for example with a QR code or a web address.
3. The format must allow the instructions to be downloaded, saved and printed.
4. The instructions must stay accessible online for the expected lifetime of the machine and in any case for at least 10 years after placing on the market.
5. If the buyer asks at the time of purchase, the instructions must be supplied on paper free of charge within one month.
6. If use by non-professional users is foreseeable, the essential safety information must be supplied on paper anyway.
7. The EU declaration of conformity may also be supplied in digital form.

The language of the instructions is decided by each country where the machine is made available: see the country table below.

What else changes

• Protection against corruption: the machine must be protected against accidental or intentional attacks through software and connections.
• Safety-related control systems, including software, must be designed to remain safe.
• Machinery with self-evolving behaviour (machine learning) must have defined limits, and some safety components of this kind need a notified body.
• The Regulation has already been amended once to coordinate the rules on machinery with AI with the AI Act.

Country by country

The situation of national rules in October 2026. Every national item is to be verified on the official text before you rely on it.

What to do before 20 January 2027

A starting list for the engineering office, to be adapted with your consultant:

1. Make an inventory of the models and variants you will place on the market from 20 January 2027, with the languages of the destination markets.
2. Check with your consultant the new or changed essential health and safety requirements, including those on software, control systems and protection against tampering.
3. Check whether any machine falls into the categories that require a notified body.
4. Update your EU declaration of conformity and declaration of incorporation templates with the reference to the Regulation.
5. Review the manuals: structure, warnings, languages and the distinction between original instructions and translations.
6. Decide whether to move to digital instructions. If so, organise access from the machine, an archive for at least 10 years and the handling of paper copies within one month.
7. Record for each serial number the date of placing on the market, the configuration, and the version of the manual and of the safety software.
8. Prepare the documentation so it can be handed over quickly if the authorities ask for it.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• EUR-Lex: Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 on machinery