EU Cableway Directive now in force

Everyone is talking about it, but who really knows what is in it? In the following article, Dr Josef Nejez takes a close look at the structure and contents of the EU Cableway Directive.

The Cableway Directive of the European Union  – or, to give it its full title, “Directive 2000/9/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 March 2000 relating to cableway installations designed to carry persons” – was published in the Official Journal of the European Communities on 3 May 2000 and accordingly took effect on that date.

The EU Cableway Directive does not make light reading. It has the following structure: “The European Parliament and the Council of the European Union, having regard to … (reference to the legal basis for the directive), whereas … (an eight-page list of 31 points explaining the background to the directive), have adopted this directive: … (seventeen pages comprising 23 articles with their individual provisions).” That is followed by nine annexes, which fill no fewer than 48 pages.

This structure can therefore be broken down in terms of contents as follows:

• Reasons for the directive
• The provisions of the directive
• Annexes

Reasons for the directive

This first section lists a total of 31 explanations for the creation of the directive. Following a general description of ropeways, their applications and economic significance within the European Union, the authors note that national regulations in EU member states differ widely. That makes it difficult to provide standard solutions and therefore has adverse effects on competitiveness.

Work on the directive was also motivated by the need to ensure adequate standards of ropeway safety in all member countries: “Steps should be taken to define, on a Community-wide basis, essential human safety and health requirements, and environmental protection and consumer protection requirements applicable to cableway installations, subsystems and their safety components. Without this, mutual recognition of national regulatory provisions would create insoluble political and technical difficulties as regards interpretation and liability.” This passage is the first in which the authors speak of ‘installations’, ‘subsystems’ and ‘safety components’, which are subsequently given separate treatment with regard to the safety measures to be taken.

There follows a group of paragraphs relating to ways of proving that the essential requirements have been met, and special reference is made to harmonized European standards: “In order to make it easier to prove that the essential requirements have been complied with, it is useful to have harmonized European standards, compliance with which enables it to be presumed that the product is in conformity with the said essential requirements.”

In the interest of the desired standard of safety, the directive also  recommends the use of quality assurance procedures, safety analysis, conformity evaluation and a CE conformity marking.

A number of organizational points, including application of the directive to existing ropeways, procedural considerations, etc., conclude the explanatory section of the EU Cableway Directive. 

The provisions of the directive

The main section of the Cableway Directive consists of nine chapters with a total of 23 articles, most of them divided up into several paragraphs.

Chapter I. General Provisions

Article 1 defines the scope of the directive, “This Directive shall apply to cableway installations designed to carry persons,” as well as the term ‘cableway installations’ itself. The authors distinguish between funicular railways, cable cars and drag lifts. Unlike the national regulations in force in several EU member states, the directive thus clearly classifies draglifts – or surface lifts, to use the more technical term – as a ropeway system.

Article 1 also includes definitions of the terms ‘installation’ and ‘safety component’ as used in the explanatory section. An installation is defined as “the whole on-site system, consisting of infrastructure and the subsystems listed in Annex I, where infrastructure specially designed for each installation and constructed on site shall mean the layout, system data, station structures and structures along the line which are needed for the construction and the operation of the installation, including the foundations”.

The expression ‘safety component’ is used to refer to “any basic component, set of components, subassembly or complete assembly of equipment and any device incorporated in the installation for the purpose of ensuring a safety function and identified by the safety analysis, the failure of which endangers the safety or health of persons, be they users, operating personnel or third parties”.

In Article 3 the authors formulate the central stipulation that “installations and their infrastructure, subsystems and safety components of an installation must comply with the essential requirements which are laid down in Annex II and are applicable to them”. Where a national standard implementing a harmonised European standard covers the essential safety requirements laid down in Annex II, ropeways engineered in accordance with the provisions of that national standard shall be deemed to satisfy the relevant essential requirements.

Article 4 refers to the safety analysis as defined in Annex III and to the need for a safety report to be drawn up on the basis of the safety analysis.

Chapter II: Safety Components

This chapter considers the subject of safety components with reference to the question of access to the national markets of member states in Articles 5 and 6, while Article 7 is devoted to the subject of the CE conformity marking as illustrated in Annex IX and the EC declaration of conformity provided for in Annex IV.

Chapter III: Subsystems

The question of market access for subsystems is dealt with here on the same basis as the provisions of Chapter II, with particular reference to the EC examination certificate as explained in Annex VII and the EC declaration of conformity (Annex IV).

Chapter IV: Installations

The provisions of this chapter are primarily relevant for the national authorities in EU member countries. They are called upon to lay down approvals procedures for ropeway construction and commissioning designed to ensure that only those ropeways are built and go into service that are planned and constructed in compliance with the essential safety requirements.

Chapter V: Safeguards

Articles 14 and 15 define procedures to be followed by member states in cases where a safety hazard is identified in spite of due fulfilment of the formal requirements, and in cases of  con-compliance of safety components and subsystems for which a declaration of conformity has been issued

Chapter VI: Notified Bodies

Article 16 lays down procedures for the nomination and evaluation of those bodies that are to be responsible for conformity assessment. Evaluation of the notified bodies is to be based on the criteria listed in Annex VIII.

Chapter VII: Committee

The creation of a committee to support the Commission in its work is provided for in Article 17.

Chapter VIII: CE Conformity Marking

In article 18 the authors refer to Annex 18, which presents a graphic model for the use of the letters ‘CE’ for the CE conformity marking. The chapter also includes provisions for the actual application of the conformity marking and for measures to be taken in the case of any infringement of CE conformity marking requirements.

Chapter IX: Final Provisions

This chapter includes a timeline for the implementation of the directive in national law and transitional periods for installations already in the planning or construction phase and for market access for subsystems and safety components. The authors also formulate the obligation of the national authorities to communicate to the Commission the legal provisions adopted in their respective countries in response to the directive. In particular, member states must adopt and publish the relevant laws, regulations and administrative provisions within 24 months of the coming into force of the directive, i.e. by 3 May 2002 at the latest. For a period of four years from the date of publication of the directive, i.e. until 3 May 2004, member countries may permit the construction of ropeways and market access for subsystems and safety components on the basis of the regulations in force on their respective territories on that date. 

Annexes

The annexes go into specific detail with regard to the various provisions described in more general terms in the main section. The contents of the annexes will be the subject of a separate article in one of the forthcoming issues of ISR. To conclude this introduction to Directive 2000/9/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council Relating to Cableway Installations Designed to Carry Persons, the Annexes are listed below (see box).

Annexes