Europe looks likely to capitulate on demands which would have forced farmers to put large tractors and certain types of agricultural trailers through regular MoT-style tests.
The European Commission’s planned new roadworthiness package would have introduced the checks.
But these have been dropped in the final negotiations between the European Parliament and the European Council of Ministers as part of a trade-off to secure an agreement.
The approach will be ratified by both institutions early next year when the final deal is signed.
Farming unions welcomed the move, but it is likely to be questioned given the appalling record that some farmers have for maintaining equipment.
In 2011, one senior figure in the industry, Adam Wyatt, the training and development manager with the British Agricultural and Garden Machinery Association, said trailer faults were widespread, particularly with brakes.
He told a road safety event at Inverurie at the time: “It looks as if people are prepared to play a game of Russian roulette in the belief they will not get caught, but I have to say action needs to be taken as things will get very messy. The law on trailer brakes has always been there. But braking issues have become a major, major issue.”
The original plan was for all O2-rated trailers, such as those used for hauling livestock behind tractors and other vehicles, should be tested.
But UK farming unions said the tests would be prescriptive and onerous as well as costly and bureaucratic.
NFU England also argued that demands for tractors to be tested to the same level as heavy goods vehicles was unrealistic because of the many tasks they have to carry out on farms. It too said that legal restrictions, such as red diesel and operating licensing, meant the use of tractors on the roads in the UK was more limited than in other countries.
NFU England regulatory affairs adviser Ben Ellis said certain high-speed T5 tractors were still included in the testing demand, but that would only apply if they travelled “mainly on public roads”. He added: “Thanks to the lobbying efforts of the NFU’s office in Brussels standard tractors used for farming would be exempt. The NFU is committed to ensuring the safety of agricultural machines on the roads which is why we advocate the use of the farm vehicle health check scheme.”
NFU Scotland said the original proposals had been designed with regard to the situation on the continent where farmers use tractors and trailers for road haulage and compete with hauliers. Unions in the UK had argued that did not happen here.
NFU Scotland legal and technical policy manager Gemma Thomson said: “The proper and safe transport of vehicles, equipment, livestock and goods is in the interests of all but driving unnecessary cost and bureaucracy into the system is in no one’s interests.
“Through a lobbying effort, we look to have successfully tackled the unwelcome level of testing, cost and inconvenience that these proposals may have brought with little or no benefit to road safety.
“It will come as a welcome relief for Scottish livestock keepers that MoT-style testing of livestock trailers will not now be required.”
MEP George Lyon had, with his Lib-Dem colleague Phil Bennion, tabled amendments to the commission’s proposals when they first came before the parliament in April.
Mr Lyon said: “This agreement is a welcome bit of commonsense from Brussels.
“Everyone knows it is important that we have a robust safety regime for tractors and trailers. But massively increasing costs and bureaucracy would have been in no-one’s best interests.”