WRITTEN QUESTION E-1892/00 by Elisa Damião (PSE) to the Council. Accidents at work.
Date: 2000-06-19
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: European Commission, European social policy, occupational accident, occupational disease, powers of the institutions (EU)

C 89 E/106

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

20.3.2001

their seat belts (Council Directive 91/671/EEC) (4) and the United Nations Economic Commission for
Europe (UN-ECE) Convention on road traffic, of 8 November 1968 (known as the Vienna Convention).
The Vienna Convention establishes broad guidelines on free circulation for international traffic and in its
Annex 5: Technical conditions concerning motor vehicles and trailers stipulates that:

Any Contracting Party may, with respect to motor vehicles which it registers and to trailers which it
allows on the road under its domestic legislation, lay down rules which supplement, or are stricter
than, the provisions of this annex.

Thus Member States may require that vehicles registered on their own territory carry equipment such as
first-aid kits, fire extinguishers or spare light bulbs.

The Vienna Convention also stipulates that:

All vehicles in international traffic must meet the technical requirements in force in their country of
registration when they first entered into service.

Therefore, a Member State may not require that a vehicle registered in another Member State shall carry
equipment that is not mandatory in the Member State where the vehicle is registered. Consequently, in the
example quoted by the Honourable Member, Portuguese vehicles do not have to be equipped with spare
light bulbs when travelling in Spain or first aid kits when in Germany, and accordingly fines should not be
levied on foreign drivers who do not comply with such national requirements.

So far, it as not been found necessary to harmonise further the various national road traffic rules regarding
the provision of ancillary equipment, and Member States have not requested such harmonisation.

(1) OJ L 237, 24.8.1991.
(2) OJ L 46, 17.2.1997.
(3) OJ L 235, 17.9.1996.
(4) OJ L 373, 31.12.1991.

(2001/C 89 E/115)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1892/00

by Elisa Damiªo (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)

In accordance with the Treaty the Council acts, in the field of workers(cid:146) health and safety at work as

1.
in other fields, solely as co-legislator with the European Parliament.

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It is for the Commission, in the first instance, to ensure that the measures that it proposes in that
2.
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(cid:146) and
employers(cid:146) organisations.

Subsequently, it is also the Commission(cid:146)s function to check that the various Directives adopted by

3.
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(cid:146)
safety.

Finally, should it be necessary,

5.
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.

(2001/C 89 E/116)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1893/00

by Elisa Damiªo (PSE) to the Council

(19 June 2000)

Subject: Public services

Under the Portuguese Presidency, the Council decided to speed up the liberalisation of public services, a
decision which was undoubtedly taken on the basis of studies of the impact of such liberalisation on
employment and social cohesion.

Given that not all Member States have even set up regulatory bodies in the various sectors,

can the Council tell me whether the Union is in a position to guarantee:

(cid:129) that no one will be deprived of public services;

(cid:129) that there will not be undue amalgamation, to the detriment of consumers and certain Member States;

(cid:129) that jobs will not be sacrificed in the name of investors(cid:146) interests?

Reply

(23 October 2000)

It is recalled that Article 16 of the ECT states that (cid:145)given the place occupied by services of general
economic interest in the shared values of the Union as well a their role in promoting social and territorial
cohesion, the Community and the Member States, each within their respective powers and within the
scope of application of the Treaty, shall take care that such services operate on the basis of principles and
conditions which enable them to fulfil their missions(cid:146).

The Council has repeatedly emphasised the importance of ensuring that liberalisation takes due account of
public service obligations in the relevant sectors. The recent European Council in Santa Maria da Feira
emphasised that the concerns and significance of public services of general interest must be taken into
consideration in a dynamic single market.

This commitment is further reflected in the recent proposal, adopted by the Commission on 30 May 2000,
for an amendment to the postal services Directive, which stresses the need to maintain the provision of
universal services and points out that, even with the prospect of full market opening in 2007, projections
suggest that a positive level of growth in the global activities of the universal service providers will
continue to occur. A similar concern is highlighted in the Commission(cid:146)s Communication of 23 May 2000
concerning recent progress with building the internal electricity market. This Communication states that,