With a clear call to action on worker’s health, leading MEPs, hailing from five different political groups, have today sent a letter to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Commissioner for Jobs and Social Rights, Nicolas Schmit.
In their letter, the MEPs hailing Belgium, France, Sweden and Denmark express how the authors are:
…especially concerned with the protection of workers against dangerous substances in the workplace, which includes the many industries that are at the forefront of Europe’s green transition.
A copy of the letter was also sent to the Permanent Representations of Hungary, Poland and Denmark – the next three EU-presidencies – with a hope to those countries also choosing to prioritise the issue.
Background for the letter
The background for the concern is the fact that there are still approximately 1400 carcinogenic, mutagenic, reprotoxic and other harmful chemical substances, which remains without limit values at the EU-level. This poses a great threat to worker’s health and safety and also makes for uneven competition, as companies only have to comply with rules in some EU-countries, but not in others.
Progress on introducing limit values have so far been very slow, with part of the problem being, that only maximum 5 substances are sent for evaluation at the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) at a time. According to the Dutch government, the current speeds means that it will take another 70 years until limit values have been set for all of the substances concerned. For that reason, 14 Member States already sent a letter to the Commission to accelerate the process of setting limit values at European level.
In the letter the MEPs underline how the recipients can “count on the European Parliament to be ambitious and cooperative” on the topic, as well as calling to address the structural issues playing a role. The MEPs:
…urge the Commission to increase substantially the capacity of preparing scientific opinions for dangerous substances, including by allocating adequate resources for all relevant actors and bodies in the legislative process of setting occupational limit values
The authors of the joint all working on Directive (EU) 2024/869 on limit values for Lead and Diisocyanates, and represent five of the European Parliament’s political groups. The signatories are:
- Cindy Franssen, Shadow rapporteur for Directive (EU) 2024/869 on limit values for Lead and Diisocyanates, EPP, Belgium
- Ilan de Basso, Shadow rapporteur for Directive (EU) 2024/869 on limit values for Lead and Diisocyanates, S&D, Sweden
- Catherine Amalric, Shadow rapporteur for Directive (EU) 2024/869 on limit values for Lead and Diisocyanates, Renew, France
- Sara Matthieu, Shadow rapporteur for Directive (EU) 2024/869 on limit values for Lead and Diisocyanates, Greens, Belgium
- Nikolaj Villumsen, Rapporteur for Directive (EU) 2024/869 on limit values for Lead and Diisocyanates, Left, Denmark
About the motives for sending the letter, the MEPs say:
Cindy Franssen: “Work-related cancer is the cause of over 100,000 deaths each year in the EU. During the last years, a lot of progress has been made with stricter occupational exposure limit values for some hazardous substances. However, it’s not enough if we want to fulfil the ‘Vision Zero’ approach to work-related deaths. Therefore, I call on the European Commission to step up its efforts and to urgently revise the most dangerous high-risk cancer-causing substances for which there are no or outdated EU exposure limits.”
Ilan de Basso: “acEven though this mandate has brought many important improvements in the protection of workers’ health and safety, we need more deliverables to achieve such a goal. The European Commission has promised to put forward more legislation on the most harmful substances still this mandate, such as more and stricter limits on exposure to carcinogens, mutagens and reprotoxics, as well as more regulation related to asbestos, but has failed to do so. Therefore, we are now sending a strong message to the Commission to step up its efforts. Our goal is clear. No one should risk getting sick or dying because of their work”
Catherine Amalric: “This mandate was marked by great progress in protecting the health of workers. Substances toxic to reproduction are finally treated like carcinogenic substances. The Asbestos Directive has been ambitiously revised to protect workers on the front line of energy renovation of buildings. Obsolete limit values, such as those for lead, have finally been revised. But much remains to be done. We fully support the call of Member States to speed up procedures. This convergence of co-legislators constitutes strong political support for the next Commission to act with ambition”
Sara Matthieu: “Still many women in the workforce are not protected against occupational exposure to hazardous substances that have a negative impact on their reproductive capacity as well as on the foetal development. We need women in the green transition. This is why we need to protect them”
Nikolaj Villumsen: “If we continue to only act with the current pace, we risk that it will take about 70 years – or 14 more EP-legislatures before we have limit values for all the needed substances – which would mean that we’ll only make it in the 2090s. It is clear that we need to speed up significantly.”
The letter to the Commissioners can be found here below:
Letter to Commission President Von der Leyen and Commissioner Schmit
More about the issue
You can read more about the letter here:
