Explanatory Memorandum to COM(2004)50-2 - Amendment of Regulation (EC) No 2062/94 establishing a European Agency for Safety and Health at Work - Main contents
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| dossier | COM(2004)50-2 - Amendment of Regulation (EC) No 2062/94 establishing a European Agency for Safety and Health at Work. |
|---|---|
| source | COM(2004)50  |
| date | 23-04-2004 |
The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, hereinafter referred to as 'the Agency', was established in 1994 by Council Regulation (EC) N° 2062/94 i, in Bilbao, Spain, and became fully operational in 1996.
The main tasks of the Agency are to collect and disseminate technical, scientific and economic information in the Member States for the benefit of Community bodies, Member States and interested parties, to promote and support co-operation and exchange of information and experience among the Member States and in particular to provide the Commission with the necessary information it requires to fulfil its task of identifying, preparing and evaluating legislation and measures in this area, as regards the impact of legislation on enterprises with particular reference to SMEs.
As provided in the Regulation, the Agency has set up an information network, working closely with the Member States' competent national authorities and research centres designated to co-ordinate and transmit the information to and from the Agency. The network is also extended to the EFTA countries and the acceding and candidate countries.
Contents
- 2. Context
- 3. Justification of the Commission's proposal
- 4. Subsidiarity and Proportionality
- 5. Legal Basis
- 6. Explanation of the amendments proposed
- Article 2
- Article 3
- Article 3 (2)
- Article 7A - (new)
- Article 8
- Article 8 (1)
- Article 8 (4)
- Article 8 (5)
- Article 8 (6)
- Article 8, new paragraphs 8, 9, 10 and 11
- Article 9, new subparagraph
- Article 11, paragraph 2
- 7. Budget characteristics
Article 23 of the existing Regulation instructs the Commission to submit a report, no later than five years after the entry into force of the Regulation, accompanied as appropriate by a proposal, on the basis of which, after consultation of the European Parliament, the Council will review the Regulation and any new assignment for the Agency if necessary. In 2001, the Commission submitted a progress report i to the Council based on factual information available at that time. In the meantime, an external evaluation was carried out and all stakeholders were consulted. The Commission's Communication on the evaluation of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work accompanying this proposal serves the purpose of the report required by Article 23 of the Regulation. The following proposal to amend Regulation N° 2062/94 responds to the Council's invitation to submit, as appropriate, such a proposal.
The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work is an important instrument available to assist the EU institutions, the Member States and other interested parties in this policy area. Since its creation, it has provided the Commission with valuable data, in order to help it to carry out its obligations. In addition, since 1998, it has organised the annual European Week on health and safety at European and national levels, a major awareness-raising campaign which was previously under the responsibility of the Commission. Since 2000, the Agency has been in charge of a specific scheme to support SMEs, based on a European Parliament initiative. The Agency has developed since its creation and passed from 15 staff members in 1997 to 45 in 2003.
In this context, the new Community Strategy on Health and Safety At Work i (" the Community Strategy") entrusts the Agency an important role in matters concerning awareness-building and risk anticipation. As a result, the Agency was invited by the Commission and the European Parliament to adapt its annual and mid-term programme according to the priorities of the Community Strategy; the actual four year rolling programme is in line with the Community Strategy.
In accordance with the existing Regulation, the Agency has a tripartite Administrative Board composed of national representatives of governments', employers' organisations and employees' organisations (45 members) and the Commission (3 representatives). The national and tripartite composition of the Administrative Board of the Agency is a feature shared with two other decentralised Agencies, the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, in Dublin, Ireland, and the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop), in Thessaloniki, Greece. The employers' and the employees' organisations at European level have an observer each in the Board. The Director is the legal representative of the Agency, responsible for the preparation and execution of decisions of the Board and for day-to-day management.
The Board meets twice a year to take decisions related to the work programme and the budget, while its Bureau, in accordance with the Rules of Procedure, takes urgent and necessary measures between the Board meetings and ensures the proper preparation of those meetings. However, the Board is still in charge of a number of cumbersome and time-consuming administrative issues, which do not leave enough room for more important strategic deliberations on the functioning and role of the Agency. Taking into account that due to enlargement the members of the Board will increase from 48 to 78 from May 2004, it is important to ensure that the Board maintains its capacity to provide a strategic contribution after the accession of the new Member States.
Therefore, the Commission considers that some amendments are necessary to ensure efficiency and increase the added-value of the work of the Agency.
These amendments fall into the following main categories:
- those intended to clarify the objectives and tasks of the Agency (better link with the priorities of the Community Strategy; strengthen the Agency's capacity of data analysis ; focus more on the needs of SMEs; provide more accessible and comprehensible information to the final users, etc (Articles 2 and 3));
- those intended to improve the functioning of the Board and strengthen its strategic role and the executive role of the Bureau, while leaving the director accountable and responsible for every-day management (Article 8);
- those intended to reinforce the role of the social partners in the Agency's network with the Member States, (Article 4(2)).
- those intended to reinforce co-operation with other Community bodies in the social policy area (Article 3(2)).
The amendments proposed are based on the findings of the external evaluation of 2001, the consultation of the governments', employers' and employees' groups of the Board, the Advisory Committee on Health and Safety at Work, as well as the analysis of the Commission services, as presented in the Commission Communication accompanying this proposal.
The proposal also reflects the recommendations on the role of the Agency made by the Council i and the European Parliament i in their respective Resolutions as well as in the Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee i on the Commission Communication on the Community Strategy.
The Commission has carefully considered the invitation of the European Parliament to rationalise the functioning of these Bodies i. Since the full representation of all Member States and the involvement of social partners are essential for the development of Community social policy, the Commission considers that any reduction of the number of members of the Boards would be detrimental to the tripartite representation of all Member States and would not be advisable. On the other hand, the different nature of the responsibilities entrusted to the Agency, as compared to other Community agencies, precludes the Commission from considering the European Parliament' suggestion for joint administrative Boards for bodies with similar responsibilities. Therefore, while maintaining the national and tripartite character of the Boards, which is a key feature of the agencies, the Commission proposes to rationalise the Boards' working methods by reinforcing the strategic role of the Boards and reducing the frequency of meetings to once a year. This should ensure that enlargement will not have a negative financial impact.
[The European Parliament] "Considers it out of the question, on grounds of efficiency and cost, further to expand the administrative boards of the Community bodies during the forthcoming enlargement; takes the view that enlargement offers a good opportunity thoroughly to reconsider the composition and working methods of these administrative boards, which are already very ponderous as a rule; calls on the Commission to put forward appropriate proposals by 31 July 2003 to amend the founding regulations accordingly and, in so doing, to examine whether provision could be made for joint administrative boards for bodies with similar responsibilities".
Furthermore, the amendments take account of the Joint Opinion on the functioning and governance of their management structures of the three Community Bodies with tripartite composition of Boards, submitted to the Commission in January 2003. In this opinion, the Boards stress that their future rules of governance should be based on the following principles: the fundamental value of tripartite governance; the role of the social partners in these bodies that creates a specificity requiring them to function according to common rules and differently from the other Community agencies; and finally that the maintenance of the national tripartite representation from each country is essential for the involvement of all actors, taking account of the diversity of interests and approaches which characterise social issues.
In order to respect these principles, the Joint Opinion of the three Community Bodies suggests that the Boards should remain the decision-making structures, with responsibility for the major orientations of the agency (strategy, budget, work programme). In addition, they suggest that the Bureaux become executive structures, with well-defined tasks. Their size ought to remain limited to ensure efficient operations but should be sufficient to reflect the different views of the tripartite Boards. The Boards also consider that the co-ordination of each group (government, employee, employer) has proven to be an important factor to increase efficiency. Therefore, they propose to formalise the already existing function of co-ordinator.
Although the functioning of the network, as established in Article 4, was questioned in general and an amendment to the Regulation was requested by some stakeholders, the Commission believes that Article 4 i, which provides for the possibility of a periodical re-examination of the main component elements of the network, sufficiently covers this aspect and that there is no need to amend the Regulation.
Finally, the proposal is in line with the role attributed to the Agency within the new Community Strategy on Health and Safety.
The changes proposed will have no impact on the overall budget of the Agency, though they may require a review of the allocation of financial and human resources between different activities, with a greater emphasis, for example, on data analysis activities and on co-operation with the Member States and the Community Institutions, in line with the new Community Strategy. This coincides entirely with the findings and recommendations of the external evaluators and the stakeholders consulted.
The objective of the Agency is to support the Community and the Member States when they take measures or formulate courses of action within their respective spheres of competence. The role of the Agency is to collect and disseminate data and to present its findings in a way which is most helpful to the EU Institutions and to the Member States in achieving their objectives. It is independent in providing its advice, but it is not designed to act in the place of the responsible actors in the area of health and safety. By acting at European level, it is designed to provide information and analysis which enable an assessment of the effectiveness of policies within and between Member States and thus to add value in terms of the design and targeting of policies.
In this way, the Agency conforms to the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality. The proposals for modification to the Regulation reinforce these elements by highlighting the need to work closely with the Member States and the Commission and to take account of the priorities fixed at EU level in the definition of the Agency's work programmes.
Article 235 of the Treaty establishing the European Community (now Article 308) provided the legal base for the existing Regulation; therefore the Commission considers Article 308 to be the legal base for the amendments proposed to this Regulation.
The following commentary presents those Articles which the Commission proposes to amend. In addition, the recitals have been modified where necessary in accordance with the changes proposed.
Since the adoption of the Commission Communication on a new Community Strategy on health and safety at work, the current Community framework in the area of health and safety at work, is a Community strategy (where all stakeholders are actively involved) and not a Commission action programme. The Community Strategy attributes a particular role to the Agency for the implementation of its objectives and considers the Agency as a driving force in matters concerning awareness-building and risk anticipation. This is reflected in the findings of the external evaluators, the opinion of the Advisory Committee on Safety and Health at Work and the Commission Communication accompanying this proposal. The article is therefore amended in order to highlight the role of the Agency in support of Community policies in the area of health and safety, with an explicit reference to Community strategies added.
The amendment proposed aims to better specify the role of the Agency and is the result of the findings of the external evaluators, the opinion of the Advisory Committee on Safety and Health at Work; and the Commission Communication accompanying this proposal and takes account of the importance that the Community Strategy attributes to the Agency.
Article 3 i (a) and (b)
It is proposed to extend the tasks of the Agency to the analysis of the technical, scientific and economic information, in addition to the collection and dissemination of such information. The analysis of the data is not explicitly indicated in the existing Regulation, although it was the intention of the legislator, as it is included in Recital n° 6 of the Regulation.
In addition, analysis of risks and in particular of new or emerging ones is amongst the objectives of the Community Strategy and the Agency should contribute to this objective. The analytical contribution of the Agency would reinforce significantly the added-value at European level of the Agency's work. Therefore, this amendment intends to clarify the situation and responds to a strong request of all parties consulted.
Article 3 i (h)
Following the new Community Strategy, SMEs and very small businesses should be the subject of specific measures in terms of information, awareness and risk prevention programmes. The Commission, taking into account the Agency's experience in this field i and the increased need for support of SMEs in the acceding and candidate countries, considers that the Agency's tasks should include this kind of measure. Therefore, the amendment proposed allows the Agency to identify good practices and support preventive actions, in particular for SMEs.
Article 3 i (i)
This amendment is in line with the one on Article 2 and clarifies the role of the Agency in the support to the implementation of Community policy in the area of health and safety at work.
Article 3 i (j)
One of the key issues emphasised by all parties consulted was the need for the Agency to provide information to the final users (Member States' specialised services, employers' and employees' organisations and in particular companies) which is user friendly, exploitable and comprehensible in their language and not only in one language, mainly English. The Agency is invited, with this new provision, to implement this, notably by working closely with the Member States through the network of national focal points provided for under Article 4. In fact, it would not be possible for the Agency to provide the information in the current 11 languages, and from May 2004 onwards in 21 languages, without the support of the Member States. The Agency and its network should build upon existing and successful co-operation with a number of Member States.
The proposed amendment includes an explicit reference to the need for the Agency to ensure appropriate co-operation with other agencies, especially with the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions. Both bodies operate in the social policy area, although they each have distinctive tasks.
Strengthening the existing co-operation between the two bodies is already under way. The two agencies signed a Memorandum of Understanding, which sets out guidelines to ensure efficient co-operation following the recommendations of the external evaluation More recently, in June 2003, they signed a co-operation agreement which identified concrete actions and activities. The Commission, taking account of the European Parliament and the European Economic and Social Committee comments on this issue, considers that it is important to have an explicit reference on this co-operation in the Regulation and proposes the same reference in the proposal amending the Regulation of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions.
Article 4 i, second subparagraph
This amendment responds to the need to ensure the involvement of the social partners in the functioning of the established network with and within the Member States. It is proposed that the national focal points designated by the Member States to co-ordinate and transmit the information to the Agency take into account the point of view of the social partners at national level, according to national legislation or practices.
The new Article, in specifying the governing and management structures of the Agency, formally recognizes the Bureau.
The amendments to this Article, relevant to the Board's composition and functioning, are the result of the findings of the external evaluator, the opinion of the Advisory Committee for Safety and Health at Work and the Joint Opinion submitted to the Commission by the management or administrative Boards of the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions and the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training, as reflected in the Commission's Communication accompanying this proposal.
There is no modification to the content of this paragraph relating to the composition of the Board, but the proposed formulation is such that the Regulation will not need to be modified with every subsequent enlargement of the Union.
Article 8 i, second subparagraph
The existing Regulation provides that the members of the Board representing the employers' and employees' organisations are to be appointed from the members and alternate members representing the respective organisations in the Advisory Committee on Safety and Health at Work, on a proposal from those members. Although the Regulation does not provide the same as regards the government representatives, in practice, they were also members and/or alternate members of the same Committee. The amendment introduced intends to formalise this practice.
Article 8 i, fourth and fifth subparagraphs (new)
The fourth subparagraph aims on the one hand to raise the awareness of Member States as well as employers' and employees' organisations, on the need for the members of the Board to reflect fairly the various economic sectors concerned and on the other hand, introduces a gender dimension in the composition of the Board. These amendments are in line with those provided for in the Council Decision for the designation of the members of the Advisory Committee on Safety and Health at Work i.
The fifth subparagraph ensures that the list of the members of the Board will be accessible to the public and, in line with the Union's transparency policy for the citizens, requires it to be published in the Official Journal of the EU.
This amendment intends to clarify the fact that one of the three vice-chairmen represents the Commission, as has always been the case in practice in all three tripartite agencies. As the Commission is not explicitly mentioned in the current formulation, the impression is given that the three vice-chairmen represent the three groups. This amendment also intends to avoid confusion as to the number of Commission members in the Bureau (see Article 8 new paragraph 8).
Additionally, it introduces the possibility for the renewal of the annual mandate of the chairman and the vice-chairmen of the Board, in order to ensure continuity, as the number of meetings per year is proposed to be reduced in principle to one per year.
A new subparagraph is introduced in paragraph 4. The aim is to formalise the existence of the three groups represented in the Board and the way they operate. In practice there are three separate groups: representatives of national governments, employees' organisations and employers' organisations. Before Board meetings, the three groups hold separate internal discussions, the results of which are reported in the Board meeting, without prejudice to each Board member's individual entitlement to be given the floor.
In this context it is important to note that representatives of the social partners' organisations at Community level who also attend the Board meetings without being entitled to vote, play an active role in the work of the Board, in particular by co-ordinating views within the respective groups. As requested in the Joint Opinion of the three Community bodies concerning the future governance of their Boards, it is proposed that the government group also designate a co-ordinator, for reasons of balance among the groups and of better efficiency of the Board's work.
The Commission believes that, as this organisational structure has proven its usefulness and is supported by stakeholders, it seems appropriate to formalise it in principle, leaving any operational details to a new set of rules of procedure.
The amendment proposed in this paragraph reduces the number of Board meetings from two to one per year, given that it should concentrate on strategic issues only, formalises the existence and reinforces the role of the Bureau as described in new paragraphs 9 and 10 of this Article, and quantifies the impact of the enlargement on the functioning of the Board (from 48 to 78 members).
Besides, as regards the possibility for additional meetings, it is proposed to reduce the necessary quorum for requesting these meetings to one-third of the members, for more flexibility and in line with the rule for the two other Community Bodies.
Two changes are proposed here.
The first suggests that decisions be taken by an absolute majority of members of the Board and not by a majority of two thirds of the votes, in order to facilitate the decision-making process and in line with the other two Community Bodies. The second amendment proposes to give all Board members (government', employers', employees', Commission representatives) one vote each, while currently the government representatives have two votes each. This amendment will align the Agency with the two other Community Bodies. The Commission proposes this change, in line with the guidelines for the development of future Community Bodies i and in particular the need for representation of the relevant stakeholders in the Boards of these bodies and in line with the principle agreed by the Heads of State and Government for more active involvement of the social partners in the development of the Social Policy Agenda. i
The existing Regulation does not make any reference to the Bureau and it currently functions on the basis of the Rules of Procedures of the Board, which define its responsibilities, its composition and operational rules i.
In paragraph 8, it is proposed to formalise the role of the Bureau, as the Board will delegate to it more responsibilities to be carried out throughout the year. The Commission does not consider it necessary to increase the number of Bureau members, as requested in the Joint Opinion. The number of 8 members (the chairman and the three vice-chairmen of the Governing Board, the three co-ordinators of the groups and one more representative of the Commission) is sufficient to ensure that the different opinions of the Board members are taken into account in a co-ordinated way, while not exceeding a number that would have a negative impact on the efficiency of the proceedings. If necessary, the Board could increase the annual number of meetings of the Bureau (currently four, including the two preparatory of the two Board meetings). The current system has proven its efficiency, given also that the members of the Board are also members of the Advisory Committee on Safety and Health at Work.
Paragraph 9 clarifies the kind of responsibilities that the Board may delegate to the Bureau, by clearly excluding those referred to in the Regulation as tasks of the Board (mainly linked to the approval of the annual and rolling programme, of the budget and of the Agency financial rules). These responsibilities should not overlap with the tasks of the Director.
Paragraph 10 specifies that the Board will decide on the annual schedule of meetings of the Bureau, while additional meetings may be convened at the request of the Bureau members.
Paragraph 11 formalises the current system of decision-making in the Bureau and proposes that decisions be taken by consensus. If no consensus can be reached, the Bureau can refer the matter to the Governing Board for decision. This will ensure the necessary transparency between the Board and the Bureau, and the compliance of the proceedings of the Bureau with the strategic orientations of the Board.
Former paragraph i of Article 8, entitling the Chairman and Director of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions to attend the meetings of the Governing Boards as observers, is moved to Article 9 'Observers' for legal consistency reasons.
Article 10 i, first subparagraph
Two changes are envisaged.
The first amendment proposed formalises the approval by the Board not only of the annual but also of the four year rolling programme of the Agency.
The second concerns the Commission consultation procedure on the draft annual programme: the term 'Commission' is replaced by 'Commission services' which better reflects the current procedure.
The consultation of the Advisory Committee on Safety and Health at Work is maintained for legal consistency with Article 2 i g) of Council Decision of 22 July 2003 (2003/C 218/01).
The amendments are proposed to formalise the fact that the tasks of the Director in relation to the Board also include the Bureau, where appropriate.
General:
It is proposed that all references to the 'Administrative Board' be replaced by the term 'Governing Board', which more accurately reflects the strategic role of the Board.
The changes proposed will have no impact on the overall budget of the Agency, in the sense that no new activities are launched. As a consequence the proposal is presented without a Financial Statement.