Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-12-14-Speech-3-573-000"
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"en.20111214.35.3-573-000"2
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"Madam President, in February 2007, the Commission adopted a communication entitled ‘Improving quality and productivity at work: Community strategy 2007-2012 on safety and health at work’.
Fourth, we need to carry out the final evaluation of the current strategy and, based on the findings, to identify the next steps in the health and safety area for the period after 2012.
The Commission welcomes the Parliament’s decision to discuss and adopt a report on the mid-term review of the EU strategy on health and safety at work.
I appreciate the ambitious nature of this document and share the House’s view of the importance of occupational safety and health policy, which is one of the most advanced areas of European social policy. The importance of health and safety at work does not diminish at a time of crisis and my recent visit to the Bilbao Agency for Occupational Health and Safety was meant to signal this.
In line with the Europe 2020 strategy, improving working conditions goes naturally with job creation, promoting permanent employment and higher productivity, as the Commission highlighted in its communication on ‘An Agenda for new skills and jobs’.
In 2012, the Commission will complete the final evaluation of the current strategy and adopt a communication on EU occupational safety and health policy priorities for the post-2012 period based on the results of that evaluation. I can also add that I have started to work very closely with the Danish Presidency to keep health and safety among our priorities in the European Union.
The strategy provided a political framework for improving occupational safety and health over the period 2007 to 2012 and laid out a road map for stakeholders to play an active role in achieving the objectives it identified. The fact that it was welcomed by all EU institutions highlights the importance of such an EU strategic framework for coordinating national policy and ensuring that workers enjoy safer and healthier conditions at work.
In particular, this House adopted a resolution on 15 January 2008 calling on the Commission to report to it on progress made at the half-way stage. In April this year, the Commission published a staff working paper entitled ‘Mid-term review of the European strategy 2007-2012 on health and safety at work’. It takes stock of what has been achieved now that the strategy has reached the half-way mark, re-examines the policy orientations and sets out proposals for the future of EU policy on safety and health at work.
The results of the mid-term review confirm that the strategy remains broadly fit for purpose, despite the changes that have taken place in the Union since 2007, and, in particular, the impact of the financial and economic crisis.
The strategy’s prime objective is achieving an ‘ongoing, sustainable and uniform reduction in accidents at work and occupational illnesses’. Given the overall reduction in incidence in the period covered by the previous EU strategy, the strategy set an ambitious target to reduce the total incidence of accidents at work in the 27 Member States by 25% from 2007 to 2012. A final estimate for the whole period covered by the strategy may not be available until 2014. This is because of time constraints related to collecting and processing national data by Eurostat. The findings in the mid-term review show a general positive development involving a reduction in accidents at work over the period 2007 to 2009.
But, despite this progress, there is still work to do under the current strategy. From the Commission’s viewpoint, the assessment of the first part of the period covered by the strategy highlights a number of priorities.
First, there is a need to simplify and update existing legislation and finalise proposals for legislation, after consulting the social partners and the stakeholders extensively. This relates, in particular, to the proposal for a revision of Directive 2004/40/EC on electromagnetic fields (the Commission proposal was adopted in June 2011 and is now being discussed by the colegislators) and the proposal for a new directive on ergonomics to replace the existing manual handling and display screen equipment directives (the Commission proposal may be adopted in the first half of 2012). Furthermore, the Commission will carry out an extensive screening of the implementation of all EU health and safety legislation, covering the period 2007 to 2012. The Commission is required to present its final report on this in 2015 at the latest.
Second, we need to consolidate the encouraging results of the first phase of implementation and to take them further in terms of adopting and implementing national strategies for occupational safety and health.
Third, we need to build on experience with Scoreboard 2009, with a view to developing a structured and commonly accepted monitoring tool for evaluating future EU strategies for occupational safety and health."@en1
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