EN 81-72 and 81-73 have been harmonised

At the end of july the European standards for safety rules for the design and installation of fire brigade lifts as well as for behaviour of lifts in the event of fire were harmonised.

EN 81-72:2020 and EN 81-73:2020 were published on 27 July 2021 in the Official Journal of the European Union L 267 on page 17 and as a result harmonised. As a result of this legal instrument, application of EN 81-72:2020 and EN 81-73:2020 triggers a presumption of conformity to the effect that the main health protection and safety requirements of the Lift Directive 2014/33/EU have been met. The transitional period for previously valid standards EN 81-72:2015 and EN 81-73:20216 has been extended to 27 January 2023.

N.B.: No technical changes were made.

• The modifications involve the requirements of the EU mandate M/549: The standards mentioned in the paper have been redated, which among other things directly affects product licensing and technical documentation.
• The harmonisation has no effect on existing market licences, such as type approval test certificates. This is regulated in the Blue Guide under 4.1.2.6.
• There is a new Annex ZA referring to Lift Directive 2014/33/EU and the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC and their respective relevance for the main occupational health and safety requirements.

The underlying standards EN 81-20 and EN 81-50 were already harmonised on 27 January 2021.

Another 12 EN standards currently await harmonisation: EN-21/-22/-28/-58/-70/-72/-77, EN 12016, EN 12385-3, EN 12385-5, EN 13015 and EN 13411-7.