Brussels, 20/04/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 20 April, the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) launched a new European Commission supported campaign, “Working Together for Risk Prevention”. This campaign aims to provide support to companies and workers in evaluating and reducing risk in the workplace.
Commissioner Laszlo Andor attended the campaign launch and pointed out that more than 5,500 people are killed every year in the EU due to accidents at work. He emphasised that the consequences of this are both human and economic. He explained that every case is a tragedy and the financial cost considerable, possibly the equivalent of almost €490 billion to the EU economy every year.
This campaign is, above all, focused on prevention and will concentrate on company managements, which are primarily responsible for health and safety, said Christa Sedlatschek, the director of EU-OSHA, at the presentation of the programme, in Brussels. Bo Smith, the representative of the Danish Presidency, however, said that it was through workers' experience that risks could be best identified and that their role in this issue was crucial. (JK/transl.fl)