According to the provisions of the Directive 2014/34/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 February 2014 on the harmonisation of the laws of the Member States relating to equipment and protective systems intended for use in potentially explosive atmospheres 2014/34/EU:
- ‘protective systems’ means devices other than components of equipment which are intended to halt incipient explosions immediately and/or to limit the effective range of an explosion and which are separately made available on the market for use as autonomous systems;
- ‘group I’ means equipment intended for use in underground parts of mines, and in those parts of surface installations of such mines, liable to be endangered by firedamp and/or combustible dust, comprising equipment categories M 1 and M 2 as set out in Annex I;
- ‘equipment-group II’ means equipment intended for use in other places liable to be endangered by explosive atmospheres, comprising equipment categories 1, 2 and 3 as set out in Annex I;
- ‘equipment category’ means the classification of equipment, within each equipment group, specified in Annex I, determining the requisite level of protection to be ensured;
- ‘intended use’ means the use of a product prescribed by the manufacturer by assigning the equipment to a particular equipment group and category or by providing all the information which is required for the safe functioning of a protective system, device or component.
