Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-04-27-Speech-3-115"
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"en.20050427.11.3-115"2
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".
Madam President, it is significant to me that tomorrow, the day we will vote on this report, is International Workers’ Memorial Day. That is the day that commemorates the 60 000 workers per year who die globally from job-related injuries or illnesses and the many millions more who are injured. For the European Union 15, the figures have been steadily improving over the last decade, but there is still nothing to be proud of. Some 4 500 workers die each year as a result of accidents at work and many more from work-related illnesses. Over four million still suffer significant injuries at work each year. This is the important backdrop to our debate today on the Bilbao Agency.
The final point is the one the Commissioner mentioned. That is Amendment 23, dealing with the appointment of the director. I know the Commission is not happy with it, but it reflects the procedure followed by the other agencies in the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs’ remit. The Commissioner has also intervened recently in the appointment of directors at certain agencies. Therefore maybe the amendment better reflects current reality.
In short, the report seeks to strengthen the role and function of the Agency, which has already done excellent work. I commend the report to the House.
As I have said, the figures for the EU 15 have improved over the last decade and I am convinced that the key health and safety directives that we have put in place, and the work of the Bilbao Agency itself, have made an important contribution to that improvement.
As the Commissioner has said, we are discussing the review and updating of the regulation governing the operations of the Bilbao Agency. That review was called for in the original regulation. It is a little later than it might have been, but that is because there has been a full external evaluation and a full consultation of all stakeholders, which has informed the Commission’s proposal and indeed the recommendations from the Council. As the Commissioner has also said, the other imperative for change has been the enlargement of the European Union, which has meant an increase in the Board of the Agency from 48 to 78 and has therefore necessitated a streamlining of administrative and management processes.
The amendments that we have proposed fall into four main categories. The first are intended to clarify the objectives and tasks of the Agency, improving the link with the priorities of the Community strategy, strengthening the Agency’s capacity for data analysis, focusing more on the needs of SMEs and providing accessible and comprehensible information to final users.
Secondly, there are amendments intended to take account of the enlargement of the Union, clarify and improve the functioning of the Governing Board and strengthen its strategic role and the executive role of the Bureau.
Thirdly, there are those intended to reinforce the role of the social partners in the Agency’s network in the Member States – a very important point – and those intended to reinforce cooperation with other Community bodies in the social policy area.
We have also, of course, tabled amendments to try to ensure a proper gender balance in the management structures of the Agency. I shall pick out one or two of the more important ones. First, I would like to say that I am grateful to Giovanni Berlinguer and the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Policy for an excellent opinion. I have taken up a number of their suggested amendments, for example Amendment 2, which underlines the need for the Agency not only to collect and disseminate information, but also to analyse that information, identify risks and good practices, and promote preventive action. It also underlines the role of the Agency as a risk observatory.
Amendment 4 concerns gender balance and the governing and management structures of the Agency. Amendments 5, 6, 7 and 8 concern in different ways the added value the Agency should bring to the data it collects and collates through analysis, evaluation, identification of best practice and dissemination of that information and best practice to where it is most needed, particularly with small and medium-sized enterprises. Amendment 7 also underlines the need for the promotion of the harmonisation of statistics on work-related accidents and illnesses, a crucial point.
A series of amendments then look at a number of technical and administrative matters concerning the composition of the board and Bureau and their respective roles and responsibilities, and the interrelationships between the two bodies. We think these amendments will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the operation of the Agency."@en1
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