Brussels, 03/06/2013
The consultation period will last for 8 weeks and anyone or any organisation may send in their replies to around twenty questions. However, the consultation does not say that a Health & Safety at Work strategy will be adopted. The Commission is content with ambiguous wording concerning a “new European political framework”.
‘’Finally, we see that the Commission has recognised the need to address health and safety at work, but where is the new strategy? Where is the response to the deterioration of working conditions and intensification of work? The EU must address these crucial questions urgently”, stated Judith Kirton-Darling ETUC Confederal Secretary.
Some questions clearly reflect the ideology of the Commission which shows little enthusiasm to develop social policies. Thus, one question asks for proposals to reduce the ‘administrative burden’ which is what health & safety would represent for small and medium enterprises.
The launch of this public consultation does not guarantee the adoption of a new strategy. For the moment it just helps to prolong the delay. In fact, the new strategy should have been adopted six months ago. For their part, the European Parliament as well as the Tripartite Consultative Committee on Health & Safety announced that they were in favour of a new strategy for 2013-2020 as long ago as 2011 and have formulated a number of concrete propositions concerning its content.
- Link to the consultation: http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?langId=fr&catId=699&consultId=13&furtherConsult=yes
- ETUC resolution: http://www.etuc.org/a/10966