Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/1999-11-03-Speech-3-112"
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"en.19991103.7.3-112"2
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"Mr President, Members of Parliament, I would like to congratulate and thank Mrs Smet. I must stress from the outset that today we are discussing the amendment to the directive concerning the branches of workers not included in the directive on the organisation of working time, which has been under discussion for 6 years. It is a very important issue and it has been a political challenge for us to finally come up with a realistic and pursuable proposal. This is what we need.
Because of the discussions which have taken place following the action by Parliament and the Council of Ministers, I feel that we are now close to that goal. The Commission may accept most of Mrs Smet’s proposals, either fully or in principle. I would like to point out that Amendment Nos 2, 3, 4 and 8 will probably be accepted fully. Furthermore, the Commission will probably agree in principle on Amendment Nos 6, 7, and 9, which may need further clarification in their wording, although we totally agree with their content. Furthermore, it must be made absolutely clear that the Commission upholds the right of initiative as regards the proposals arising from the revisions.
There are therefore two amendments which are particularly problematic; those concerning practising doctors and those concerning Sunday as a rest day. Most of the speakers referred specifically to junior trainee doctors and to their working conditions. I must stress that there is a great discrepancy between the Council’s proposal and that of the European Parliament, and the Commission has a half-way house proposal to limit the working week to 48 hours within a 7 year transition period. We believe that this proposal can help resolve and ultimately push forward this directive. Of course, this is not totally satisfactory for working doctors, but for this particularly complex problem we must take into consideration the policies of Member States on local national health systems and the different practices as regards the training period for doctors and the required transition period in each country. Then we must endeavour in realistic terms, to find a half-way house solution which will finally allow us to make headway.
The second issue concerns Sunday rest. If the Commission decides to revise the entire directive on the organisation of working hours and, from the outset, to put forward the issues of Sunday rest, which is now a major topic of discussion and one which the European Court of Justice has already delivered judgments on, then there is the danger that this issue may never actually be resolved and that we will again reach a deadlock in our search for the perfect solution.
I would like to express my gratitude to Parliament for supporting the efforts of the Commission on the issue of the directive, but it is clear that we need a conciliation procedure for those important outstanding issues. These issues include transitional provisions for practising doctors, the date for implementation of the whole directive and working hours for the crew of boats working at sea. For two of these issues, sea-fishing and the date of implementation, the Commission supports Parliament’s position. As a result of the issue raised today under Amendment No 10 which is something which has only just come to our attention, I would say that from the initial recommendation of my colleagues, apparently this already exists and is covered in article 17 paragraph 2. However, to be more certain and because this is only our first assessment, I feel that we will be able to provide a concrete answer on this amendment by tomorrow.
Members of Parliament, I believe that the most important issue and also the most difficult one for this conciliation committee and for finding a favourable solution is the issue of the directive on doctors which I spoke about before. It is my firm belief that, and I am appealing to you all, we must adopt a realistic approach on all sides so that we can all have an effective directive which will act as an initial safeguard for trainee doctors. If, by adopting maximalist approaches and trying to achieve the impossible, we do not in fact reach the required compromise, then I fear that this directive will, for many years, remain on the table without us even making any progress on it. I believe that through this whole conciliation procedure we will be able to make swift headway towards a directive which will, in due course, be voted for by the Council."@en1
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