considérant que, dès lors, la présente directive ne définit que les exigences essentielles de sécurité et de santé de portée générale, complétées par une série d'exigences plus spécifiques pour certaines catégories de machines; que, pour faciliter aux producteurs la preuve de conformité à ces exigences essentielles, il est souhaitable de disposer de normes harmonisées au niveau européen en ce qui concerne la prévention contre les risques découlant de la conception et de la construction des machines ainsi que pour permettre le contrôle de la conformité aux exigences essentielles; que ces normes harmonisées sur le plan européen sont élaborées par des organismes du droit privé et doivent conserver leur statut de textes non obligatoires; que
...[+++], à cette fin, le comité européen de normalisation (CEN) et le comité européen de normali-Whereas, therefore, this Directive defines only the essential health and safety requirements of general application, supplemented by a number of more specific requirements for certain categories of machinery; whereas, in order to help manufacturers to prove conformity to these essential requirements and in order to allow inspection for conformity to the essential requirements, it is desirable to have standards harmonized at European level for the prevention of risks arising out of the design and construction of machinery; whereas these standards harmonized at European level are drawn up by private-law bodies and must retai
n their non-binding status; whereas ...[+++] for this purpose the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) and the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (Cenelec) are the bodies recognized as competent to adopt harmonized standards in accordance with the general guidelines for cooperation between the Commission and these two bodies signed on 13 November 1984; whereas, within the meaning of this Directive, a harmonized standard is a technical specification (European standard or harmonization document) adopted by either or both of these bodies, on the basis of a remit from the Commission in accordance with the provisions of Council Directive 83/189/EEC of 28 March 1983 laying down a procedure for the provision of information in the field of technical standards and regulations (4), as last amended by Directive 88/182/EEC (5), and on the basis of general guidelines referred to above; 
