The Directive on the harmonisation of the laws of the Member States relating to lifts and safety components for lift 2014/33/EU, known as the Recast of the Lifts Directive 95/16/EC was published on the Official Journal of the European Union on Saturday, 29th March 2014.

The new provisions aim at clarifying some issues which were subject to misinterpretation and hindered the implementation of a safe single market.

For instance, the new Directive will provide with developed and more precise definitions on subjects, obligations of economic operators, presumption of conformity provided by harmonized standards, policy in submitting the Declaration of Conformity, CE marking, notified bodies and conformity assessment procedure.

This Directive shall enter into force on 19th April 2014 and Member states will have two years to adopt and publish laws, regulations and administrative provisions necessary to comply with the new provisions. As affirmed in the text of the Recast, Member States shall however not impede the putting into service of lifts or the making available on the market of safety components for lifts covered by Directive 95/16/EC which are in conformity with that Directive and which are placed on the market before 20th April 2016.