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European Lift Association

ELA

ELA represents the national and industry-related associations of the lift, escalator, moving walk and lifting platform sector to the European Commission, the European Parliament and other related bodies when required for its objectives, which include: - to collect and update information, to set up databases and to publish statistics on equipment and services relating to lifts, freight lifts, escalators, passenger conveyors and associated systems (“Lifts and Escalators"); - to participate in the formulation of codes, standards, regulations regarding Lifts and Escalators; - to promote quality, safety and highest technical standards and to encourage technical progress in the field of manufacturing, installation and maintenance of Lifts and Escalators; - to promote information for, and continuing training of, installation or maintenance personnel; - to participate in all dialogues with and to represent its Members vis-à-vis all (...)

Lobbying Activity

Response to Omnibus Directive Aligning product legislation with the digital age

3 Sept 2025

Please find attached the ELA comments related to the topic.
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Meeting with Mehdi Hocine (Head of Unit Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs) and European Federation for Elevator Small and Medium-sized Entreprises aisbl

4 Mar 2025 · Discussion of ELA’s and EFESME’s proposal for a ‘European Safety Day’ at the industry exhibition Interlift 14-17 October 2025

Response to Evaluation of Standardisation Regulation (EU) No 1025/2012

25 Sept 2023

- Need for sectoral standards to be considered when there are objective reasons for having such standards instead of only horizonal ones. - Improving the process and speed of developing and making available of European standards, including harmonized standards and their citation. - Including improving the review process at the HAS Consultants, considering timing and clarity in the communication and comments. - Facilitate, simplify, and promote recognition of ISO and IEC deliverables as European standards. - European standardization suffers from inadequate resources and expertise. Improve support to the European experts and secretariates of the committees and working groups to engage in the European and international standardization work. - Better alignment of the regulatory developments on digitalization and the standardization work supporting those developments in terms of timing, technical content and standardization organization and resources. - Ensure level of flexibility for developing European harmonised standards, that not only providing presumption of conformity but also include market needs in one document. This is especially important for adoption of ISO and IEC standards as the European harmonised standard.
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Response to List of essential services that critical entities provide

26 Jun 2023

Studying the draft of the Commission Delegated Regulation (CDR) supplementing the Directive (EU) 2022/2557 of the European Parliament and the Council by establishing a list of essential services, the European Lift Association, ELA, representing the lift and escalator industry in Europe, respectfully invites the Commission to incorporate maintenance and repair services for lifts and escalators in the list of essential services, as enumerated in article 2. The justification for having maintenance and repair services for lifts and escalators on the list in article 2 is (1) not only to ensure mitigation of the interrupted and/or limited performance of several of the services already listed, but (2) also because lifts and services are in themselves essential elements to guarantee (a) continued mobility in important day-to-day activities (supermarkets; access to residential buildings, etc.), and (b) access and undisturbed use of critical facilities (for instance hospitals or public infrastructures). ELA shall propose to add a subpoint f into article 2 under (2) Transport Sector subsector as follows: (f) Infrastructure transport subsector: enabling access and service to essential infrastructure with lifts or escalators in critical entities as in train stations, airports, hospitals, energy supply entities, retirement homes, etc. Some explicit examples (non-exhaustive): In the energy sector, e.g. power plants would not perform at the level expected or needed, without functioning lifts and escalators (for both persons and goods). In the transport sector, airports, railway stations or underground facilities would not be able to operate satisfactorily without lifts and escalators. In the public transport sector, public service operators need lifts and escalators for the transport of passengers, especially more senior persons and/or persons with impaired abilities. In the health sector counting facilities such as hospitals and nursing and elderly housing, the services would be dramatically restricted or limited in the absence of well-functioning (and sometimes lifesaving) lifts and escalators. ELA is confident that the Commission will see the listed examples as valid for including maintenance and repair services for lifts and escalators on the list in article 2.
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Response to Cyber Resilience Act

14 Nov 2022

The European Lift Association is representing more than 85% of European companies installing lifts or manufacturing lift components. Having the opportunity to comment on the Cyber resilience act new cybersecurity rules for digital products and ancillary services, we want to point out the following key messages. As regards the technical content of the Cyber Resilience Act, we will provide feedback via the standardized channels. Basically, the placing on the market of lifts as well as lift components are regulated through the Lifts Directive (2014/33/EU), the Machinery Directive (2006/42/EC to be substituted by the new Machinery Product Regulation) and other European Directives as the Low Voltage Directive (2014/35/EU), the EMC Directive (2014/30/EU) or the Radio Equipment Directive (2014/53 /EU). For lifts and their components, CEN, ISO or IEC standards exist, defining the requirements to fulfill the relevant EHSRs which are also including (the risks of) cyber issues. With the Cyber Resilience Act, the industry is concerned to be confronted with the situation of different and deviating requirements from different directives and ELA urges for an alignment. The issues of cyber security for the lift industry are covered by ISO 8102-20, which by the harmonization as EN ISO standard under the Machinery Directive shall provide presumption of conformity for the CE-labeling and placing the products on the market. Through a clarification of article 9 in the sense of covering all products which are already placed on the market under other directives like the Low Voltage Directive (LVD) and the Radio Equipment Directive (RED), the level of uncertainty and frustration would be minimized. We would be happy to provide further support if needed.
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Response to Review of the Construction Products Regulation

30 Jun 2022

ELA position is to ensure that Lifts, escalators and moving walks and lifting appliances as well as their components are excluded from the scope of CPR. In the current proposal, COM (2022) 144 final, the commission excludes only lifts and escalators plus components. Scope 2 a): lifts subject to Directive 2014/33/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council, escalators and their components; The ELA request is to extend that to cover moving walks and lifting appliances which are covered by the Machinery Directive, 2006/42/EC. The ELA proposal is therefore to change the 2 a) as: Scope 2 a): lifts and their components subject to Directive 2014/33/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council; lifting appliances, escalators, moving walks, and their components subject to Directive 2006/42/EC of the European Parliament and the Council;
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Response to Revision of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive 2010/31/EU

22 Mar 2022

Please find attached ELA's position on the EPBD issue Regards Luca
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Response to Revision of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive 2010/31/EU

22 Mar 2021

ELA, the European Lift Association, represents the lifts, escalators and moving walks associations active in the European Economic Area or in any country member of the Council of Europe, whether they are national associations or sector specific associations. ELA also represents their (components) manufacturers. The lift industry represents 6.400.000 lifts and employs approx. 160.000 persons in Europe. ELA is committed to all ecological aspects of the lift and escalator industry, developing ecological strategies and proposals to contribute to the sustainability objectives set by the European Union. Elevators, Escalators and moving walks do represent an essential element within the building that can contribute to improve the overall energy efficiency by reducing its consumptions both in new and existing buildings. New technologies and digitalization are key enablers for such improvements and those are already available across the industry. The lift industry is willing to contribute to the efforts and programmes aiming at creating more smart and sustainable cities while also supporting the reduction of the energy consumption in new and existing buildings especially on the basis of the renewed EU Commission targets for Climate and Digital transformation. In this sense, the lift industry in Europe has developed technical solutions to support the transition to Green and Digital as outlined in the Next Generation EU Program. Within this context our industry will play also an important role on future demand for new digital skills among its workforce which will be created both by skills upgrades and new professional roles. While balancing the contribution of the above-mentioned elements, we see also an implicit benefit to end users with regards to the life cycle costs of the equipment’s bringing along green and digital technologies. ELA is therefore asking to consider lifts, escalators and moving walks in the next revision of the EPBD Directive whether in relation to new or existing buildings. Finally, ELA will endeavour, hopefully with the help of the European Commission, to seek and find incentives, also within the RRF plan, aimed at real estate owners in order to encourage them to modernize their lifts and escalators therefore improving the overall green and digital performances.
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Response to Revision of the Machinery Directive

6 Feb 2019

Option 2 and in combination option 4 is the most appropriate way forward. Alignment with the New Legislative Frame Work will provide higher legal clarity and coherence across European legislations applicable to a specific machinery. This is especially important for cases where several legislations, e.g. directives, are applicable to a machinery. Option 2 gives also an opportunity to align the essential health and safety requirements of the Machinery Directive with other harmonization legislations, such as Lifts Directive regarding appliances for lifting persons, removing disparity on the safety requirements as well as legal uncertainties in some cases. It might also be necessary to consider specific essential health and safety requirements regarding the climate change, such as flooding, which may affect specific type of machinery. Clarification and allowing to provide documentation in digital formats is most welcome. Besides the environmental positive impact, e.g. reducing paper and packaging, and reducing burden and costs, digital format facilitates providing the most up-to-date instructions to the users, owners and technicians for the machinery. This is especially useful for the machinery which is generally maintained by professionals. Digitalization in the form of Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, etc. and need for addressing cyber security have become key issues for several industries. Initiative to address those during the revision of the Machinery Directive is highly relevant and appreciated. This will also provide legal framework for development of necessary harmonised standards and other specifications in support of the directive/legislation. In turn, this will disseminate the technology as well as providing clear means of application of the requirements resulting in higher safety as well making the European industry more competitive. In the course of the revision of the Machinery Directive, the conformity assessment procedures need to reviewed to ensure that the suitable procedure is applied to a specific type of machinery. This is especially important for the powerful machinery, such as lifting appliances, which is used by the general public without any training or restrictions of use. We favor of converting the directive into a regulation. This will prevent delays with the implementation but also ensures consistency of the requirements across the EU.
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