The European Commission is looking at changes to legislation to provide a European standard for the technical requirements of self-propelled agricultural machinery when used on public roads. At present, each EU country sets its own legislation for these requirements.

The European Commission has engaged a Lithuanian-based agency to survey machinery users and their representative bodies, such as the Association of Farm Contractors in Ireland (FCI), to determine if there is a problem with vehicle harmonisation at national level. They are also seeking to establish the overall cost and benefit options from different approaches to harmonisation of the machines.

European machinery user organisations such as CEETTAR, the European Organisaton of Farm, Rural and Forestry Contractors, is also concerned that any changes to the legislation will result in additional machinery costs in the same way that the Tractor Mother Regulations (TMR) resulted in increased tractor prices in 2017.

CEMA, the European Farm Machinery Manufacturers Association, believes that new legislation will further improve road safety by introducing state-of-the-art requirements in countries where that is not the case at the moment.