Brussels, 20/10/2004 (Agence Europe) - The Commission and the Parliament gave their support, on Tuesday, to the "European Week for Safety and Health at Work - Building in Safety", which is currently taking place throughout Europe. Launched on Monday at the initiative of the European Agency for Health and Safety at Work, the campaign organised in close collaboration with national authorities, social partners and other key players in the construction sector aims to reduce the number of accidents, which is still far too great. Over 800,000 accidents are recorded each year in the building sector, causing 1,200 deaths and costing over EUR 75 billion for the Community.
Although the rate of accidents in the construction industry remains twice as high as the average in other sectors in the EU, the Director General for Employment and Social Affairs at the European Commission, Odile Quintin, noted during the press conference organised for launching the Health and Safety Week that numbers have been steadily falling since 1994. "This shows that Community rules on health and safety are having results", she commented. Nonetheless, given the number of accidents that is still excruciatingly high (an accident at work happens every five seconds), Odile Quentin called on all players of the building sector to develop a "prevention culture". British Labour member Stephen Hughes said on the same occasion that it was necessary to begin by ensuring Community legislation is complied with as it is common knowledge that, in over half of the worksites inspected in Europe, the situation is far from perfect in this respect. Over one quarter of the construction contracts are in the public sector, he recalled.
The campaign is hailed by the main social partners in the sector, especially Ulrich Paetzold, Director General of the European Construction Industry Federation (FIEC), who attended the press conference, but is not restricted to the Safety Week. Hans-Horst Konkolewsky, Director of the European Agency for Health and Safety at Work, announced the organisation of a first "European Construction Safety Summit - Building in Safety", on 22 November in Bilbao.