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

The Commission considers all 8 amendments, adopted by the European Parliament during its second reading, acceptable. The Commission has amended its proposal as a consequence. The amendments aim at : - the reintroduction of the general obligations upon the employer concerning a safe working environment, appropriate supervision and designation of an overall supervisor (which were deleted by the Council); - the reintroduction of the requirements of the Commission's proposal design, operation and maintenance of the workplace and work equipment including safety warning signs are safe; - reintroducing the requirement of the establishment of a vademecum setting out guidelines for some possible ways of complying with the directive; - reintroducing the requirement of an obligation of information to undertakings in particular to SMEs; - the reintroduction of protection measures corresponding to the greatest potential hazard for certain gases and dangerous fumes; - the reintroduction of requirements already applicable to new equipment (e.g.: the containment of risks originating from power failure, the possibility of a manual override of automatic processes, etc...); - bringing into line of certain safety signs.�