IN BRIEF
On 11 September 2026, the trade association LEVA-EU sent a formal letter of objection to Dutch Infrastructure Minister Vincent Karremans, asking him to withdraw the national approval framework he is preparing for light electric vehicles. The letter is signed by 91 people representing 83 companies and organisations from 18 countries, 31 of them Dutch. The stakes go beyond the Netherlands: this e-bike type-approval would hit pedal-assist bikes that already carry CE marking, including those limited to 25 km/h and 250 W that Dutch law explicitly exempts today. For LEVA-EU, the measure contradicts both Dutch law and EU law; the association is instead asking for a dialogue with European Commissioner Stéphane Séjourné on a dedicated European regulation.
The Netherlands is preparing a national approval regime for light electric vehicles, or LEVs — whose proposed categories would take in pedal-assist bikes: a national e-bike type-approval that would come on top of CE marking. Ninety-one signatories are calling for it to be withdrawn.
A Dutch e-bike type-approval that would duplicate CE marking
LEVA-EU, the association that represents the light electric vehicle industry in Brussels, says it sent its letter on 11 September 2026 to the Minister of Infrastructure and Water Management, Vincent Karremans, asking him to withdraw the proposed framework and to open a genuine discussion with the sector.
What the association holds against the text is first of all a layering. The vehicles concerned already carry CE marking under harmonised European legislation; the framework would add a national approval on top of it. According to LEVA-EU, the proposed categories 2a and 2b would take in precisely those pedal-assist bikes that Dutch law places outside the scope of vehicle approval: “Under the Wegenverkeerswet and the Regeling Voertuigen, pedal-assisted bikes up to 25 km/h and 250W are explicitly exempted from national vehicle approval”, writes the association, which sees in it “a direct contradiction of the existing exemption”.
The second objection is a European one. Vehicles excluded from Regulation (EU) 168/2013 — the one that covers mopeds and motorcycles — fall under the Machinery Directive and a stack of harmonised texts that LEVA-EU lists: electromagnetic compatibility, RoHS, radio equipment, low voltage, the Batteries Regulation, market surveillance. Yet the Machinery Directive, the association argues, bars member states from adding their own technical requirements to a product that complies with it.
91 signatories, 83 organisations — 31 of them Dutch
“The letter is backed by 91 signatories representing 83 companies and organisations from 18 countries”, says LEVA-EU: manufacturers, importers and distributors of light electric vehicles for the most part, but also research institutes, trade federations and consultancies. Thirty-one of the 83 signatory parties are Dutch. At the time of publication, the association added that the list was still growing.
There is also an argument about consistency: LEVA-EU points out that in December 2025 the Netherlands was itself arguing for harmonised rules at European level rather than for a proliferation of national regimes.
The real issue: bikes judged under a text written for machines
Behind the Dutch dispute, LEVA-EU points to an older problem: “The real structural issue is that LEVs are currently “trapped” inside the Machinery Directive — legislation written for machines, not vehicles.” For want of legislation of their own, pedal-assist bikes, cargo bikes and scooters are assessed in Europe with the legal tools of a power drill.
Hence the final request addressed to the minister: to open a dialogue “with Commissioner Séjourné and DG GROW on developing a dedicated European LEV Regulation — with harmonised standards and proportionate compliance routes — and on setting up an LEV Expert Group to support that work”. Stéphane Séjourné is the European Commissioner for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy; DG GROW is the Directorate-General for Internal Market and Industry.
If the framework goes through, LEVA-EU warns of damage that would be “serious and, for some companies, irreversible” for light electric vehicle manufacturers and their suppliers, in the Netherlands as elsewhere in Europe: some companies, the association writes, would not survive it.
For cyclists in France, the case has concrete knock-on effects. If a major European market adopts its own approval regime, manufacturers have to build different versions and different compliance files depending on the border — what LEVA-EU sums up as “extra cost, extra delay” and as a fragmented patchwork of national rules. At the time this statement was published, the Dutch ministry had not commented publicly on the withdrawal request.
