Mr President, I should like first of all, on behalf of the Group of the , to apologise for the fact that Mr Skinner is not present in the Chamber. He must be detained by something very important, for we are all aware of Mr Skinner’s great commitment to getting this matter finalised. EU rules are, of course, often criticised for being much too detailed. Rules concerning employees’ health and safety are no exception. However, the directive which we are to be involved in approving today shows why that degree of detail really is necessary. We already have general rules to protect employees, including against falls from height, but the fact remains that falls from height account for 10% of all industrial accidents in the EU. That is partly due to the fact that the rules are not kept on work sites, but it is perhaps also due to the fact that there is a lack of more precise instructions as to how such accidents are to be prevented. Anyone who has tried to climb up scaffolding knows how, in that situation, one wonders whether the construction, which looks so flimsy, has been put together properly. It requires a certain knowledge to erect scaffolding properly, and I believe that the required training in the erection, modification and dismantling of scaffolding can help improve safety. I should like to congratulate the rapporteur, not only on behalf of Parliament but also on behalf of all those people who work on scaffolding, for a good result has in actual fact been achieved. Clearly, we have not, however, solved all the problems with this directive, and I can see four points in particular that we shall have to do further work on. First of all, I very much support what the common position states about the need to find a solution concerning employers and the self-employed. I should like to see these people in general covered by the rules concerning the working environment, both because of competitive considerations and because their actions can help improve safety on the work site. Secondly, we must look at the requirements made of those products designed to improve scaffolding. It is a major problem for those who erect scaffolds that the components are often very heavy. They are thus not only very difficult to handle, with the risk too of dropping them, but they are also a contributory factor in causing those who work with these materials to become worn out. A third point is training. We have found a satisfactory solution in this directive, but I believe that training is one of the points we must be very careful about in the future. Moreover, I believe that, as time goes on, it will be quite natural to make much more stringent demands upon the content of training. Let us now see, however, how the Member States set about the task. Fourthly and finally, there is the attitude to health and safety. Legislation alone cannot prevent accidents of this kind. Prevention has a lot to do with the authorities’ having the proper opportunities to monitor whether the legislation is being complied with, but also with individuals’ taking the new safety rules seriously. We cannot have those who work on scaffolding playing Tarzan out on the work sites. This directive now provides a series of clear instructions and, if they are used correctly, then I believe we can get something done about the unduly high number of accidents there are involving falls from height.

Political group: PSE