Just before the Christmas break the UFU welcomed news that the new burdensome EU proposals on tractor and trailer testing look to have been rejected in the EU.
UFU president Harry Sinclair said: “The proposals, which formed part of the EU’s wide ranging ‘Roadworthiness Package’, would have introduced new MOT-style testing for some large tractors and all livestock trailers. The rejection of these proposals is welcome news to Northern Ireland’s farmers. Obviously tractor and trailer safety is very important but introducing more cost, bureaucracy and inconvenience into an already overburdened system is in no one’s interest.
“Through a lobbying effort from the UK Farming Union’s office in Brussels we have been able to bring a stop to this unwanted and unnecessary legislation which was likely to be of little or no benefit to road safety. ‘T5’ standard large tractors while still included in the scope of the final agreement will only include those that travel ‘mainly on public roads’ – with sensible proper exemptions for farmers using tractors in agriculture and horticulture.”
The final agreement on these proposals is likely to come early in 2014.
(Source – Farming Life – 05/01/2014)