The Directive on general product safety (Directive 2001/95/EC) seeks to ensure that products made available in the European Single Market do not endanger the safety and health of consumers.

The Directive on safety and health of workers at work (EU Directive 89/391/EEC) in conjunction with the Directive on the use of work equipment (Directive 2009/104/EC) obligates the employer to provide only safe work equipment to employees and to keep this equipment safe throughout its service life.

The objective of this VGB Standard is to provide employers a reference framework for making safe work equipment available in the field of hydropower, which indicates what concrete statutory requirements have to be observed.

This VGB-Standard describes the legal relationships as well as the demands made by the product and industrial safety directives on the scope of the documentation to be supplied.