Upcoming machine safety reforms

At the outset, it is important to note that the amendments presented below concerning the integration of safety into machine design exist as legislative proposals and have not, at the time of writing, been promoted into legal instruments. As subsequent amendments will inevitably follow, the few lines that follow are necessarily perishable. They are, however, fundamental to any understanding of the issues involved.

The two new legal instruments proposed by the European institutions on April 21, 2021 are the proposal for a regulation laying down harmonized rules on artificial intelligence, and the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on machinery and related products. The first proposal deals with the vast and nebulous subject of artificial intelligence, and the second with that of machine safety and is intended to replace, subject...