EESC opinion: Simplifying and rationalising health and safety reports

Key points:

The EESC

• welcomes the Commission proposal that aims at rationalising the existing framework by providing for a single report every five years on the practical implementation of all directives on health and safety; reporting has taken up a large amount of the national authorities' time, and the proposal will bring significant savings in time and cost; 
• finds that a single report will enable the national authorities in Member States to obtain a better overall view of the situation and make it easier to report on the links between the various health risks which the directives seek to prevent; 
• considers that the Commission should propose the introduction of a requirement for Member States to consult with the social partners on all sections of the report and to include their comments in the report.