Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2013-09-11-Speech-3-621-000"
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"en.20130911.56.3-621-000"2
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"Mr President, I want to thank the Commissioner for his answer, which is a disappointing one. In my opinion, Commissioner, we need a European strategy on health and safety at work for many reasons, and we need it now. When there is no strategy, national programmes may not continue, or at least not continue with the same intensity. Implementation can so easily slip and, crucially, the fostering of a preventive culture is not seen as a priority.
That culture of prevention, of assessing risks with the engagement of all relevant stakeholders, is to me a central part of any health and safety strategy and if that slips in Member States it is so difficult to bring it back. Also, when there is no EU strategy, we have no uniformity, we have no implementation at European level and we have no added value. The European dimension then becomes less important and, as with the culture of prevention, if it slips down the agenda, it is difficult to get it back.
There is a real temptation, in times of fiscal cutbacks, to cut corners and it is often forgotten that good health and safety policy is an investment and not a cost. It is clear that, across all the Member States, people are under much greater stress. The recent death of a young intern in the financial services sector in London, with questions linked to overtime, is an example of this. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development has said there is an urgent need for a change of culture in the financial services industry regarding working hours and conditions. My question is: where is the prevention culture? If we do not have an EU strategy, it does not help. In Ireland at the moment, junior doctors are going to strike before the end of this month over the non-implementation of the Working Time Directive: this is bad for patients and bad for doctors. I know we are not talking here about implementation of directives, but we do not have a health and safety ethos, we do not have a preventive culture and, again in this context, I believe an EU strategy would be of immense help.
As I said before, people in general are under greater stress due to job insecurity, precarious work, zero-hours contracts etc., and that greatly exacerbates psycho-social problems. An EU health strategy, if we had one, would help to manage this and I honestly think it is badly needed in this regard.
Finally, I welcome the agreement arising from the Directive on Electromagnetic Fields but I re-echo the words of Ms Berès and Mr Őry: Commissioner, what obstacles are in the way?"@en1
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