Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-02-23-Speech-3-333"
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".
Allow me first of all to thank all those who have worked very constructively with me to prepare this report on the promotion of health and safety at work. I should also like to thank all the other members of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs for the attention they have devoted to this problem and to the materials provided. This is proof that they consider the problem of protection of health in the workplace to be an important component of European policy.
On this basis, I am therefore against these draft amendments and I recommend that they should be rejected.
In conclusion, allow me to say a few words on the most important points contained in the text on which we are to vote tomorrow.
First of all, the Commission and the Member States are urged to make every effort to monitor and make effective improvements to the practical application of directives on health and safety at work by means of specific strategies. Attention must be paid to prevention, a multi-disciplinary approach, improved cooperation between social partners and improved compliance with and awareness of regulations on health and safety at work.
Thank you for your support and attention.
We all know that this is an area that has a direct and profound impact on all working people. To illustrate this point, I should like to list a few alarming statistics, which are also included in the report. There are a total of around five million occupational accidents every year in the EU. Around two thirds of these result in absences from work lasting longer than three days, and almost 14% of workers suffer more than one occupational injury each year. Every year about 150 million working days are lost and almost 300 000 workers allocated a certain degree of invalidity as a result of occupational injury or illness. It is estimated that the Union as a whole suffers losses of up to 3.8% of GDP as a result of illness and occupational accidents. In my view, these data demonstrate the high economic cost that results from the lack of an appropriate social policy. I should emphasise that this report deals only with the original 15 Member States.
It must be acknowledged that there are too few effective tools at European Union level that might be used to address this problem successfully. I am sure we all agree, however, that at least those tools that are available to us must be used as effectively as possible in order to improve working conditions.
On this basis, I very much welcome the fact that this draft report has been the subject of extremely detailed discussions, not only within the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, but also with representatives of the Commission and of non-parliamentary institutions. We have been able to clarify certain misunderstandings with regard to a number of matters; for example, that it is of course up to the Member States to adopt appropriate national legislation, to monitor the application of this legislation and to submit national reports on its implementation in a timely fashion.
When the text was first discussed, critical comments were made with regard to the statements relating to the Commission. In this respect, I am pleased that, at a meeting with representatives of the Commission, we were able to explain our approaches and we reached broad agreement when looking at the individual draft amendments. Following this meeting, I also made some amendments to the text of the explanatory statement, and I supported the proposal of the Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality. As rapporteur, I have attempted to cooperate on equal terms with all the political groups within the committee, and our collaboration has resulted in many balanced compromises. These compromises were supported by all the political groups, and the report was therefore unanimously accepted during the final vote in the committee. Originally, voting on the report was to have been carried out in accordance with Rule 131. At the request of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament, a closing date was set for the draft amendment, and this is why we now have the opportunity to discuss the report.
Members of the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats have again put forward four draft amendments, which have already been discussed once and put to the vote in the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs. Allow me to make a few comments with regard to their content.
The draft amendment to paragraph 6 aims to delete a very important passage, which emphasises the positive role of the trade unions and employees’ organisations in the field of health and safety at work. It must be emphasised that paragraph 6, as included in the report, is the result of a compromise between all the political groups represented in the committee, including the Group of the European People’s Party. All the political groups voted for this draft in committee.
The draft amendments 2, 3 and 4 are submitted in the same wording that was discussed, and eventually rejected, during the vote in committee.
Draft amendment 4 states that a high level of worker protection would result in a weakening of the competitiveness of the original Member States if the new Member States did not fully implement rules on health and safety at work. This is hypothetical, and we must assume that all 25 Member States are obliged to observe directives, since they form part of the
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