3.5.2000 Official Journal of the European Communities L 106/21 DIRECTIVE 2000/9/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 20 March 2000 relating to cableway installations designed to carry persons THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 47(2) and Articles 55 and 95 thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the Commission (1), Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee (2), Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the Treaty (3), Whereas: 1 Cableway installations designed to carry persons (hereinafter referred to as ‘cableway installations) are designed, manufactured, put into service and operated with the object of carrying persons. Principally, cableway installations are mountain lift systems used in high-altitude tourist resorts and consisting of funicular railways, cable cars, gondolas, chairlifts and drag lifts, but may also consist of cableway installations used in urban transport facilities. Some types of cableway installation may use other, completely different basic principles which cannot be excluded a priori. Therefore, provision should be made for introducing specific requirements designed to achieve the same safety objectives as those laid down in this Directive. Cableway installations are principally operated in connection with tourism, particularly in mountain areas, which plays an important role in the economy of the regions concerned and is becoming an increasingly important factor in the trade balances of the Member States. From a technical point of view, the cableway installations sector also ranks among the industrial activities linked to the production of capital equipment and to activities in the building and civil engineering sector. Member States are responsible for ensuring the safety of cableway installations at the time of manufacture, putting into service and during operation. Moreover, () OJ C 70, 8.3.1994, p. 8 and 0OJ C 22, 26.1.1996, p. 12. () O] C 388, 31.12.1994, p. 26. (}) Opinion of the European Parliament of 6 April 1995 (O] C 109, 1.5.1995, p. 122), confirmed on 27 October 1999 (not yet published in the Official Journal), Council common position of 28 June 1999 (O] C 243, 27.8.1999, p. 1) and Decision of the European Parliament of 27 October 1999 (not yet published in the Official Journal). Council Decision of 16 December 1999. they are responsible together with the competent authorities for such matters as land-use, regional planning and environmental protection. National regulations differ widely as a result of techniques peculiar to the national industry as well as local customs and knowhow. They stipulate specific dimensions and devices and particular characteristics. In the light of these circumstances, manufacturers are obliged to redefine their equipment for each market. This makes it difficult to provide standard solutions and adversely affects competitiveness. The essential health and safety requirements must be observed in order to ensure that cableway installations are safe. Those requirements are to be applied with discernment to take account of the state of the art at the time of construction and of technical and economic requirements. Further, cableway installations may straddle frontiers and the construction thereof may run up against conflicting national rules. Steps should be taken to define, on a Community-wide basis, essential human safety and health requirements, 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. By the same token, standardisation without prior definition of harmonised regulatory requirements is not sufficient to solve the problems. Responsibility for approving cableway installations is generally vested in a service of the competent national authorities; in certain cases, approval of the components cannot be obtained beforehand but only when the customer applies for such approval. By the same token, the requisite inspection of the cableway installation prior to its entry into service may result in the rejection of certain components or in diverse technological solutions. Such a state of affairs leads to increased costs and longer delivery periods and is particularly penalising for foreign manufacturers. Moreover, cableway installations are also carefully monitored by the public services when they are operational. The causes of serious accidents may be linked to the choice of site, to the system of transport itself, to the structures, or to the way in which the system is operated and maintained. In these installations circumstances, the safety of cableway depends equally on the surrounding