Safety and health of workers: protection against risk from explosive atmospheres

The rapporteur pointed out the advantages of the proposal in question, which was aimed at preventing and protecting against explosions in certain high-risk working environments; the proposal for a directive set a minimum uniform safety ‘standard’ for all Member States; in addition, the amendments tabled sought to introduce certain technical aspects as well as to strengthen the Commission’s wording: for example, Amendment No 12 provided for the continuous monitoring of the protection system, instead of just one review a year. However, Commissioner Flynn said that he could not accept Amendments Nos 6, 9, 10 and 12 (especially the latter, as this would have imposed an excessively harsh burden on SMEs). However, he was prepared to accept Amendments Nos 2, 3, 4, 7 and 8 in part, and Amendments Nos 1, 5, 11, 13 and 14 in full (and especially the latter, as it was aimed at helping SMEs adapt to the provisions of the Directive).