Council Recommendation of 31 May 2007 on the prevention of injury and the promotion of safety Text with EEA relevance
Date: 2007-05-31
Institutions: Council of the European Union
Subjects: EU programme, accident prevention, action programme, information, public health, trauma

18.7.2007

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 164/1

I

(Resolutions, recommendations, guidelines and opinions)

RECOMMENDATIONS

COUNCIL

COUNCIL RECOMMENDATION

of 31 May 2007

on the prevention of injury and the promotion of safety

(Text with EEA relevance)

(2007/C 164/01)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to the Treaty
Community, and in particular
Article 152(4) thereof,

establishing the European
the second subparagraph of

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,

Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament (1),

Whereas:

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

Every year, about 235 000 citizens of the Community
die as a result of an accident or violence. Injuries are,
after cardiovascular diseases,
cancer and respiratory
diseases, the fourth most common cause of death in the
Member States.

In children, adolescents and young adults accidents and
injuries are the leading cause of death.

Many survivors of severe injuries suffer life-long impair-
ments. Accidents and injuries are a main cause of chronic
disability among younger people leading to a heavy and
largely avoidable loss of life years in good health.

injuries account

for about 6,8 million
On average,
hospital admissions, which represent 11 % of all hospital
admissions in the European Union.

Injuries represent a huge financial burden on health and
welfare systems, causing about 20 % of sick leave and
constituting a major factor for reduced productivity.

The risk of an injury is unequally distributed in Member
States and in social groups, and varies by age and gender
as well. The risk of dying from an injury is five times

(1) Not yet published in the OJ.

greater in the Member State with the highest injury rate
than in that with the lowest rate.

(7)

(8)

(9)

(10)

(11)

In contrast to many other causes of illness or premature
death,
injuries can be prevented by making our living
environment, as well as products and services we use
safer. There is ample evidence of proven effectiveness in
accident measures
that are still not widely applied
throughout the Community.

Most of these measures have been proven cost-effective,
because the benefits of prevention for health systems
often exceed by a factor of several times the costs of
intervention.

The important advances that have been made in a
number of areas of safety concern like traffic or the
In addition, attention
workplace should be continued.
should be paid to other areas which up until now have
been less covered like home, leisure and sport accidents,
and prevention for children and elderly citizens.

Consideration should also be given to the link between
the consumption of alcohol and drugs and the number
of injuries and accidents as well as to intentional injuries,
in particular domestic violence against women and
children.

It
therefore seems necessary to make better use of
existing data and develop, where appropriate, an injury
surveillance and reporting mechanism, which could
ensure a coordinated approach across Member States to
develop and establish national policies on prevention of

C 164/2

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

18.7.2007

(12)

injuries,
including exchange of best practice. Such a
mechanism could be developed within the Community
Public Health Programme (1), any successor programmes
and any other relevant Community programmes, and
should be built on the basis of representative national
injury surveillance and reporting instruments
to be
developed in a coherent and complementary manner.

and any other

In order to streamline the resources of the Community
Public Health Programme
relevant
Community programmes and to tackle injury prevention
most effectively priority areas have been identified: safety
of children and adolescents, safety of elderly citizens,
safety of vulnerable road users, prevention of sports and
leisure injuries, prevention of injuries caused by products
and services, prevention of self-harm and prevention of
violence, particularly domestic violence against women
and children. These priority areas have been determined
by taking account of
injuries in
the social
terms of the number and severity, the evidence regarding
the effectiveness of intervention actions and the feasibility
of successful implementation in the Member States,

impact of

HEREBY RECOMMENDS:

With a view to providing for a high level of public health,
Member States should:

representative

(1) Make better use of existing data and develop, where appro-
priate,
injury surveillance and reporting
instruments to obtain comparable information, monitor the
evolution of
injury risks and the effects of prevention
measures over time and assess the needs for introducing
additional initiatives on product and service safety and in
other areas.

awareness of

(2) Set up national plans or equivalent measures, including the
for
promotion of public
preventing accidents and injuries. Such plans and measures
should initiate and promote interdepartmental and interna-
tional cooperation and use funding opportunities effectively
for preventive actions and promoting safety. In their imple-
mentation, particular attention should be paid to gender

safety issues,

aspects and to vulnerable groups such as children, elderly
people, persons with disabilities, vulnerable road users, and
to sports and leisure injuries,
injuries caused by products
and services, violence and self-harm.

(3) Encourage the introduction of injury prevention and safety
promotion, in schools and in training of health and other
professionals, so that these groups can serve as competent
actors and advisors in the field of injury prevention.

HEREBY INVITES THE COMMISSION TO:

(1) Gather, process and report Community-wide injury informa-
tion based on national injury surveillance instruments.

(2) Facilitate the exchange of information on good practices and
on policy actions in the identified priority areas and the
dissemination of the information to relevant stakeholders.

(3) Support Member States in the inclusion of injury prevention
other
training

into the

health

and

of

knowledge
professionals.

(4) Carry out Community actions as outlined above by using
the resources provided for in the Community Public Health
Programme and successor programmes, the general frame-
in support of
work for
consumer
for
Research (3)
Community
programmes.

financing Community actions
policy (2),
and

Framework
other

Programme

relevant

any

the

(5) Carry out an evaluation report four years after the adoption
of this Recommendation to determine whether the measures
proposed are working effectively and to assess the need for
further actions.

Done at Brussels, 31 May 2007.

For the Council

The President

F. MÜNTEFERING

(1) Decision No 1786/2002/EC of the European Parliament and of the
Council of 23 September 2002 adopting a programme of Community
action in the field of public health (2003-2008) (OJ L 271, 9.10.2002,
p. 1).

(2) Decision No 20/2004/EC of the European Parliament and of the
Council of 8 December 2003 establishing a general framework for
financing Community actions in support of consumer policy for the
years 2004 to 2007 (OJ L 5, 9.1.2004, p. 1).

(3) Decision No 1513/2002/EC of the European Parliament and of the
Council of 27 June 2002 concerning the sixth framework programme
of the European Community for research, technological development
and demonstration activities, contributing to the creation of the Euro-
pean Research Area and to innovation (2002-2006)
(OJ L 232,
29.8.2002, p. 1).