Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-02-23-Speech-3-337"
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"en.20050223.20.3-337"2
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".
Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen. First of all, my thanks to the rapporteur, Mr Maštálka, for his work in drawing up this report on promoting health and safety at the workplace. Every year, 4.8 million people are victims of accidents at work, 5 200 people lose their lives in the workplace, and at least 158 million working days are lost. This is a great waste, of both human and economic resources. So great is the cost of the many accidents at work as to be equivalent to between 2.65% and 3.8% of the EU’s gross domestic product. This is money that could have been used instead to promote employment and create more and better jobs: a clear objective of the Lisbon Strategy, which aims to make the EU the most competitive region in the world. Businesses often complain that it is too expensive to introduce these health and safety measures, but then the cost is very great if workers die or become chronically ill as a result of accidents at work.
The EU has already presented a number of directives on health and safety at work, and this legislation is working. According to one estimate, EU legislation has prevented the loss of 25 million European working days per annum, and many lives have already been saved, as the Commissioner, too, mentioned. Yet the common framework directive from the EU is not enough. National laws or clear collective agreements between the social partners must be introduced, just as the practical work on securing a better working environment could be greatly improved.
The accession of ten new Member States to the EU presents us with a great challenge as regards the creation of a good, safe working environment in these new Member States. In many countries, the workers are not so well organised, and safety in the workplace has not been a topic for discussion. We need a greater focus on prevention and implementation, something that is also proposed in the report, and, in this connection, we need a detailed survey of the specific situation in the new Member States, too. It would be useful if the Commission were to draw up a report on this. It would also be a good idea for evaluation reports in future to focus more on evaluating the degree of practical compliance with legislation by the Member States. Otherwise, the work we are doing is worthless. We must pay special attention to the situation in small and medium-sized enterprises. There is a much larger number of accidents at work in these businesses than in large businesses, and also large numbers of workers who are poorly informed. It is very important, then, that the Commission take appropriate steps both to give a structure to the work on safety in businesses and to stimulate the social dialogue on the working environment out in the workplace."@en1
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