Mr President, you have given me the floor as rapporteur but in fact the name on the report is that of Mrs Damião. I would like to begin by sincerely thanking her for the hard work that she has done on this dossier. Sadly, she is ill and is only slowly recovering. I know I speak for everyone when I say I wish her the fullest and speediest possible recovery. I would like to thank the Council too for the adoption of a common position which strengthens the Commission's original proposal and also incorporates a number of the European Parliament's first reading amendments. Parliament particularly welcomes the inclusion of a new point in the proposed directive to prohibit all activities exposing workers to asbestos fibres, except demolition work and disposal of waste products resulting from demolition and removal work. The whole thrust of the proposal is to protect workers engaged in those activities and repair work, which will bring workers into contact with asbestos locked up in the built environment for many years to come. It is with this in mind that in the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs we have adopted three amendments at second reading, designed to strengthen still further the common position. A quick word about each of those amendments: Article 3(3) of the proposal derogates from important elements of the directive in respect of workers whose exposure is of a sporadic and low intensity. This was too open-ended for the Employment Committee and, therefore, we wanted to pin down that definition of sporadic and low intensity still further. Amendment No 1 does this by specifying that Member States, in accordance with their normal tradition and practice, will consult with both sides of industry and lay down practical guidelines for determining work of this kind. We think that is an important step in the right direction. Amendment No 2 makes provision for breaks for workers obliged to wear individual breathing equipment because of their potential exposure. Again, we think this is an important step. It is extremely uncomfortable to work for long periods in individual breathing equipment. The Council had some resistance to Amendment No 3 initially, but we felt it was important that we included a specific mention of sanctions and, in the end, we have included a text which has been used quite often in other social and employment dossiers in the past. We are quite pleased with that as well. Overall, we have had very good cooperation with the Danish Presidency on this dossier – to such an extent that we feel we can reach agreement at second reading with the assurances we now have from COREPER that the Council will be willing to accept these three amendments adopted in the Employment Committee. It is my hope that, with these three amendments adopted and voted upon tomorrow, the Danes can take this forward as an 'A' point on 20 December and they will be adopted very quickly. I say I hope that will be the case because the deadline for amendments on this dossier closed only a few minutes ago. I hope that no groups have taken advantage of that deadline to table amendments. If they have, I can say with absolute certainty that those amendments will not be carried in the House – we know that from the margins in the Employment Committee. But it would delay the adoption of this dossier beyond the Danish Presidency into the spring – the earliest would be March under the Greek Presidency. That would simply lead to a further delay of weeks, if not months, before this directive could be agreed. That would put back its final adoption and implementation within the European Union and during that delay additional workers would inevitably be exposed to asbestos fibres and, over time, might die as a consequence of that exposure. So I hope no groups will take advantage of that deadline – if any have, I hope they will, even at this late stage, withdraw those amendments. Therefore, I would hope we could include this on the voting list tomorrow. Everyone has had the amendments agreed in committee for a couple of weeks now in translation. That would allow the Commission to deal with this dossier at its meeting tomorrow afternoon and that, in turn, would allow the Danes to deal with it on 20 December. If we do not find that additional amendments have been tabled or if they are withdrawn, I would ask you, Mr President, to use your good offices to have this added to the voting list tomorrow lunchtime. IN THE CHAIR: MR PUERTAVice-President

Political group: PSE