Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-03-29-Speech-1-102"
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"en.20040329.10.1-102"2
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"Mr President, I wish to tell the Commissioner that I am looking forward to meeting him tomorrow in order to exchange experiences and points of view concerning the social agenda. I shall then address the rapporteur, Mr Pérez Álvarez. I see that Mr Hughes is not here today. That is because it is sometimes difficult to make one’s way to Strasbourg because of the lack of air connections. Mr Hughes has got caught up on the way here. On behalf of the Group of the Party of European Socialists and of Mr Hughes, I wish to thank Mr Pérez Álvarez for his very constructive cooperation. The fact that we have obtained this result has a lot to do with the sound cooperation between the Group of the European People’s Party (Christian Democrats) and European Democrats and the Group of the Party of European Socialists. Mr Pérez Álvarez and Mr Hughes have been the leading figures in this cooperation.
We have set out in pursuit of two objectives. The first is to produce a sound directive in this area that guarantees employees’ health and security. The second objective has been to reach an agreement before the end of the term of office so that we do not keep putting off the issue. It has already been said that this directive is part of the health and safety and physical agents package. We have previously dealt successfully with vibrations and noise and are now dealing with electromagnetic fields and workers’ exposure to these.
This affects many people in the labour market. Let me take a few examples in the form of people within health-care, large-scale catering and the metal industry. It is an important directive on which we now have to adopt a position. A debate has taken place on the long-term effects and on the difficulties of finding scientific observations enabling the long-term effects to be evaluated. I think that, through the amendments we have produced in the committee and for which we hope to obtain a hearing, we are highlighting some important matters.
Firstly, consultation and cooperation with employees is being debated. Another important subject is, of course, prevention: that is to say, when an employee suffers overexposure, he should have an automatic right to health checks. If, in the course of these health checks, it emerges that the employee has suffered overexposure and been harmed, a further risk evaluation should be carried out. I consider this perhaps to be the most important proposal among the amendments now being tabled by our committee.
It is also important that there should be serious consequences for those employers who do not comply with these recommendations. I must also mention the last amendment to the effect that there is a deadline before which the Commission must respond. If new findings come to light, the initiative must be taken and Parliament consulted again.
Finally, I wish to say a big thank you. This has been an example of constructive cooperation, and I hope the outcome will be successful. I am convinced it will be."@en1
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