WRITTEN QUESTION E-1865/00

by Luis Berenguer Fuster (PSE) to the Commission

(9 June 2000)

Subject: Risks to the safety of workers and citizens as a result of applying national rules on health and safety in the workplace to public works tunnel building operations

Commissioner Diamantopoulou's reply of 3 April 2000 claims that an examination of Spanish legislation has shown that the application of the provisions laid down for the mining sector with regard to tunnel building increases the level of protection for workers provided for by Directive 92/57/EEC.

The claim, however, flatly contradicts the conclusions which the majority of Member States appear to have reached. In the cases of Italy, Portugal, Belgium, Ireland, UK, France and Germany, at least, none of the laws transposing Directive 92/104/EEC apply to public works under construction in general, nor to civilian tunnelling and underground public work in particular. The Spanish Ministry of Development appears to have reached the same conclusion; in response to the safety risks to workers and the general public posed by the legal provisions applicable to mining, it approved the Order of 19 November 1998 laying down specific provisions for planning, building and using underground constructions for road and rail transport (technical regulation IOS 98), excluding the application of provisions concerning mining in the planning, building and use of underground and submarine public works, on which the Ministry has drafted a document which has been forwarded to the sectors concerned for information and consultation.

Furthermore, accident statistics in the mining sector indicate a situation which flatly contradicts the Commissioner's statements. Between 1984 and 1999, 741 people were killed in working accidents in mining. Over the same period, and before the adoption of the Spanish legislation contrary to Directive 92/57/EEC, contained in Royal Decree 1389/97, there was one single serious accident in the extremely numerous public works tunnel building operations which have been carried out as part of Spanish infrastructure operations over the last 15 years.

What is the technical basis for the Commission's claim that the application to public works tunnelling operation (non-military) of rules on protecting workers in the mining sector increases the level of protection afforded to workers employed in tunnel building?

Answer given by Mrs Diamantopoulou on behalf of the Commission

(28 July 2000)

The Commission would remind the Honourable Member that, already in its reply to Written Question E-467/00(1), it pointed out that application of the rules enshrined by Real Decreto 1389/1997, which transposes Directive 92/104/EEC(2) on surface and underground mineral-extracting industries, to tunnel building, irrespective of their nature, is without prejudice to the provisions transposing Directive 92/57/EEC(3) on temporary or mobile work sites, namely Real Decreto 1627/1997.

Pursuant to Article 137(5) of the EC Treaty (ex-Article 118), Member States are authorised to maintain or introduce more stringent protective measures than those provided for in the Community instrument.

Hence the application of certain provisions of Directive 82/104/EEC to tunnel building effectively reinforces the minimum levels of protection established by Directive 92/57/EEC. This applies in particular to the minimum rules set out in part A of the Annex to Directive 92/104/EEC and which concern protection from fire hazards (point 4.4), explosives and initiating devices (point 5), means of evacuation and escape (point 10), safety drills (point 11), first-aid facilities (point 12) and the minimum provisions provided for in part C, which concern support and ground stability (point 6), ventilation (point 7), fires, combustions and heatings when the use of hydraulic fluids which are difficult to ignite for the transmission of hydrostatic and/or hydrokinetic mechanical energy in the machinery is necessary to avoid the risk of fire and its spread (point 11.3), lighting (point 13), underground workforce accounting (point 14) and rescue organisation, so as to take appropriate and rapid action in the event of any major incident (point 15).

All these minimum rules supplement and reinforce the level of health and safety of workers involved in tunnel building within the meaning of Directive 92/57/EEC and notably those referred to in point 10 of Annex IV, Part B.

As regards the statistics mentioned by the Honourable Member, it should be pointed out that the total number of workers who died in the extractive industries (1984-1999) includes according to the information provided by the Spanish authorities(4) victims of fatal accidents both in underground and surface workings and in ancillary surface installations. As from 1996 the data on accidents in tunnels have been indicated separately.

Hence, contrary to the data cited by the Honourable Member, the statistics provided by the Spanish authorities show that, for the 1996-1999 period alone, nine fatal accidents and four serious accidents occurred in tunnel building work.

(1) OJ C 330 E, 21.11.2000, p. 167.

(2) OJ L 404, 31.12.1992.

(3) OJ L 245, 26.8.1992.

(4) Informe de Actividad de la Comisión de Seguridad Minera, Dirección General de Minas, Ministerio de Industria y Energía (junio 1999).