"The ETUI-REHS has been closely monitoring the revision of the Machinery Directive, the five-year review of which has demonstrated the difficulties of striking a balance between market needs and protecting machinery operators' health and safety. The revision has also raised fundamental questions about what progress technology has achieved towards safer equipment since the Machinery Directive came fully into force. We take the view that progress in safety through design cannot be achieved without an iterative mechanism where the work environment's reactions to manufacturers' chosen design solutions are brought back to source and used to devise safer equipment. This argument will be developed in a two-part article: the first part looks at the main steps of the revision and sets the background for the second, which will focus on selected changes to the existing text of the consolidated Directive 98/37/EC."

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