25. 8. 97 Official Journal of the European Communities No L 233/1 (Acts whose publication is obligatory) DIRECTIVE 97/27/EC OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 22 July 1997 relating to the masses and dimensions of certain categories of motor vehicles and their trailers and amending Directive 70/156/EEC THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, and in particular Article 100a thereof, Having regard to the proposal from the Commission ('), Having regard to the opinion of the Economic and Social Committee (2), Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 189b of the Treaty (*), { ( ( 1 2 (1) (2) (3) Whereas the total harmonization of technical requirements for motor vehicles is necessary in order to achieve the smooth functioning of the internal market, while ensuring a high level of safety for the public; Whereas the technical requirements which certain vehicle categories must satisfy pursuant to national laws relate, inter alia, to their masses and dimensions; Whereas these requirements differ from one Member State to another; whereas it is therefore necessary that all Member States adopt the same requirements either in addition to or in place of their existing rules in order to allow, in particular, the EC type-approval procedure which was the 0] No C 230, 4. 9. 1991, p. 46. ) ) O] No C 49, 24. 2. 1992, p. S. %) Opinion of the European Parliament of 12 February 1992 (O] No C 67, 16. 3. 1992, p. 81), Council common position of 28 November 1996 (O] No C 41, 10. 2. 1997, p. ), Decision of the European Parliament of 9 April 1997 (O] No C 132, 28. 4. 1997) and Council Decision of 21 May 1997. (4) (5) subject of Council Directive 70/156/EEC of 6 February 1970 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the type-approval of motor vehicles and their trailers (%), to be applied in respect of each type of vehicle; Whereas it is desirable to harmonize the maximum masses and dimensions of motor vehicles and their trailers to be registered in the Member States in accordance with Directive 96/53/EC of 25 July 1996 laying down, for certain road vehicles circulating within the Community, the maximum authorized dimensions in national and international traffic and the maximum authorized weights in international traffic (°); whereas the aforementioned Directive applies only to the traffic on the territories of the Member States and not to technical requirements as laid down in Directive 70/156/EEC; Whereas Directive 96/53/EC lays down certain maximum authorized dimensions for both national and international traffic in the Member States with a certain lead time for their entry into force; whereas some other maximum authorized dimensions, as well as maximum authorized masses, remain applicable only to international traffic; Whereas, as a consequence, the harmonization of the maximum authorized masses of motor vehicles and their trailers to be registered in the Member States does not appear to be feasible in the short term; whereas on the other hand it does now appear feasible to achieve, as far as possible, the harmonization of their maximum dimensions, to deal with the question of masses by providing for the possibility of a uniform procedure to determine the registration/in-service maximum permissible masses of vehicles in each Member State, and to (*) OJ No L 42, 23. 2. 1970, p. 1. Directive as last amended by Directive 96/79/EC (O] No L 18, 21. 1. 1997, p. 7). (*) OJ No L 235, 17. 9. 1996, p. 59.