WRITTEN QUESTION E-1892/00

by Elisa Damião (PSE) to the Council

(19 June 2000)

Subject: Accidents at work

Despite the development of legislation in the European Union with a view to increasing levels of safety for workers, particularly in the building and processing industries, the fact is that the numbers of serious accidents and fatalities have risen.

It is therefore clearly not enough to legislate, and we need to verify whether the measures put forward are adequate and are being applied. What indicators does the Council have at its disposal with regard to accidents at work and work-related illness, and how has it assessed the work done by national inspection and administration bodies?

Reply

(23 October 2000)

1. In accordance with the Treaty the Council acts, in the field of workers' health and safety at work as in other fields, solely as co-legislator with the European Parliament.

2. It is for the Commission, in the first instance, to ensure that the measures that it proposes in that area are adequate with respect to the objective to be achieved by consulting, in particular, the Advisory Committee on Safety, Hygiene and Health Protection at Work and representatives of workers' and employers' organisations.

3. Subsequently, it is also the Commission's function to check that the various Directives adopted by the European Parliament and the Council have been implemented satisfactorily by the Member States.

4. To that end, the Member States are obliged to inform the Commission of the laws, regulations and administrative provisions that they adopt in order to comply with the Directives in the field of workers' safety.

5. Finally, should it be necessary, in order to ensure the proper implementation of a Community Directive, to assess the work of a national inspection and management body, that task would also be a matter for the Commission.