Health and Safety
Executive / Commission
About HSE
An advisory group, set up by the Luxembourg Advisory Committee (LAC), consisting of Government, Industry and Trade Unions representatives that advise on specific issues when draft proposals have been presented by the European Commission (EC). There are different Ad Hoc Groups according to the Directive that is being considered. All Member States may send representatives to these groups but this varies according to the Directive that is under discussion.
Sections of a Treaty. Articles give the legal base for further legislative action within the European Community.
Article 95EC
This article is intended to facilitate the free movement of goods or services
between Member States by removing technical barriers to trade.
Article 136-140 EC
Under these articles, the European Commission must promote the use of Social
Dialogue. As part of the Social Dialogue, process the European Commission
(EC):
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Each Commissioner has a Private Office, or Cabinet of personal staff, the head of which is called the chef de cabinet. There are usually six cabinet members. Individual cabinet members play a significant role in policy formulation, and act as a filter between the Commissioner and the Commission’s permanent civil service.
Co decision Procedure
Introduced by the Treaty of the European Union, this procedure has been modified
by the Treaty of Amsterdam and now applies to most areas of Community legislation.
It gives the European Parliament (EP) the power to adopt instruments jointly
with the Council.
The Committee of the Regions is an advisory assembly of the European Union
(EU); it is responsible for issuing opinions on proposals for Community legislation.
It is composed of 222 representatives of local and regional authorities. The
decision to set up this assembly was prompted by the need to consult the public
authorities closest to the citizen – for example mayors town and city
councillors and regional presidents on EU proposals of direct interest to
them, as they will have responsibility for implementing programmes or applying
new legislation.According to the Treaty on European Union and the Amsterdam
Treaty, the COR must be consulted by the European Commission (EC), the Council
and the European Parliament in areas affecting local and regional interests,
such as education, youth, culture, health and social and economic cohesion.
* The composition of this Committee is likely to change following enlargement
in 2004.
Is the same set of requirements across Europe - i.e. a common framework of safety regulations is having the same set of safety regulations for every Member State in the European Union.
A Common Position is the result of the first reading in the Council of Ministers of a proposal under the Co decision procedure. It consists of a proposed legislative text, as well as a presentation of the European Parliament’s amendments that the Council either accepts or rejects. The Common Position is published in the Official Journal of the European Community.
Member States each appoint a Competent Authority/Authorities (CA) to oversee the implementation of European Directives in their Member State.
Under the Co decision procedure between the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament (EP), a Conciliation Committee may be set up. It comprises equal numbers of the members of the Council of Ministers or their representatives and an equal number of representatives of the EP. Any disagreement between the two institutions on the outcome of a Co decision procedure is referred to this Conciliation Committee with a view to reaching agreement on a text acceptable to both sides. The draft of any joint text must then be adopted within six weeks by qualified majority voting (QMV) in the Council of Ministers and by an absolute majority voting of the members of the EP. Should one of the two institutions reject the proposal, it is deemed not to have been adopted.
The Health and Safety at Work Act etc 1974 places a statutory responsibility on HSC to consult on legislative proposals. This is most commonly done by issue of a Consultative Document (CD). Typically, the CD will consist of background on the legislative proposal, draft regulations, a summarised Regulatory Impact Assessment an a copy of the directive if the legislation originates in Europe. Copies of the CD are sent to those on the HSE consultation directory, any group or individual who requests one and it is published on the HSC/E website. Usually 3 months are allowed for comment. Responses will be analysed, discussed with major stake holders and eventually a package will be submitted to HSC for approval. CD responses are treated as open documents unless a respondent requests confidentiality and may be viewed by the public in HSE Information centres.
Committee of Permanent Representatives to the European Communities. The French acronym by which the Permanent Representatives Committee is known, consists of the Member States' Permanent Representatives. Its representatives are the senior members of UKREP. It is involved in preliminary negotiations, and assists the Council of Ministers in dealing with proposals and drafts of instruments put forward by the European Commission. It lays down guidelines and supervises expert working groups.
Is the European Union's main decision-making institution. It consists of the ministers of the Member States responsible for the policy matters on the agenda: foreign affairs, farming, industry, transport or whatever. For example there is a Council for the Environment and a Council for Employment, Social Affairs, Health and Consumer Affairs, each supported by a specific working group. Despite the existence of these different Ministerial compositions, depending on the matter in hand, the Council is nonetheless a single institution.It sets political objectives, coordinates national policies and resolves differences between themselves and with other institutions. It decides some matters by Qualified Majority Voting (QMV), and others by unanimity. Minutes of all Council meetings can be found on the EU Council’s on-line Newsroom.
The European Commission contains Directorate Generals (DGs) each having reasonability for a policy area within Europe. Each section is headed by one of the European Commissioners. There are 24 DGs, and the issues they cover includes: Trade, Economic and Financial Affairs, Agriculture, and Justice and Home Affairs. Health and Safety legislation is predominately the responsibility of DG Employment and Social Affairs.
Gives representation in the European institutions to the 222 members falling
into three categories: employers, workers and representatives of particular
types of activity (such as farmers, craftsmen, the professions, consumer representatives,
scientists and teachers, cooperatives, families, environmental movements).The
Committee are consulted by the EC - and on occasion the European Parliament
- on issues concerning the internal market, education, consumer protection,
environment, regional development, social affairs, public health and equal
opportunities.
* The composition of this Committee is likely to change following enlargement
in 2004.
The European Commission is a body with powers of initiative, implementation, management and control. It is the guardian of the Treaties and the embodiment of the interests of the European Community. It is currently composed of twenty independent members (two each from France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom and one each from all the other countries), including a President and two Vice-Presidents. (This composition will obviously change following the Enlargement of the EU in 2004).The Commission is divided into 24 directorates –generals (DGs), each headed by a director-general which deal with different policy areas. The Director-Generals report to a Commissioner, each of whom has the political and operational responsibility for one or more of the directorate-generals.
The European Council is the term used to describe the regular meetings of the Heads of State or Government of the European Union Member States. It meets at least twice a year and the President of the European Commission attends as a full member. Its objectives are to give the European Union the impetus it needs in order to develop further and to define general policy guidelines. This is not to be confused with the Council of Ministers/ Council of the European Union. The European Council submits a report to the European Parliament (EP) after each of its meetings and an annual written report on the progress achieved by the Union.
It is made up of fifteen judges assisted by nine advocates-general appointed for six years by agreement among the Member States. (This composition may change following the Enlargement of the EU in 2004). It has two principal functions: to check whether instruments of the European institutions and of governments are compatible with the Treaties, and, at the request of a national court, to pronounce on the interpretation or the validity of provisions contained in Community law.
The European Parliament is the assembly of the representatives of the 370 million Union citizens. Since 1979 they have been elected by direct universal suffrage and today total 626 distributed between Member States by reference to their population (The composition of the Parliament will change following Enlargement of the EU in 2004). Parliament's main functions are as follows:·
It also appoints an Ombudsman empowered to receive complaints from Union citizens concerning mal-administration in the activities of the Community institutions or bodies. Finally, it can set up temporary committees of inquiry, whose powers are not confined to examining the actions of the Community institutions but may also relate to actions by Member States in implementing Community policies.
This, in effect, is the chairmanship of the EU. The Presidency of the Council of Ministers rotates between the Member States every six months: January until the end of June and July until December. (The arrangements for changing the Presidency every six months is subject to change following enlargement of the EU in 2004) The EU Presidency role is to:·
The European Union (EU) came into existence in 1992 when the Treaty on the European Union entered into force (also known as the Maastricht Treaty as this is where it was signed).
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Implementation is the process of taking the standards set within the European Directive giving it effect through domestic legislation.
A Directive is published in the Official Journal of the European Community
with a deadline for Implementation - usually 3 years. HSE produces a Consultation
Document (CD) with draft regulations and a Regulatory Impact Assessment. Normally
there is a 3 month consultation period where anyone with an interest is invited
to comment including trade organisations and worker representative groups.
The comments are then analysed and discussed with stakeholders.
The amended Regulations are recommended to UK Ministers by the HSC. If contact,
Ministers then sign the regulations before they are laid before the UK Parliament.
The British government must show that existing/ new legislation provides the same standards as set out in the European Directive.
The European Commission (EC) will seek an implementation report from Member States after the agreed implementation date.
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All Community legislation has to be based on legal powers contained in one or more of the articles of the Treaty: the legal base or Treaty Base. The choice of Article is determined by the nature and primary aim of the proposal. In practice, many proposals have more than one aim, and so political considerations come into play to determine the legal base and thus the arrangements for voting and for consulting the European Parliament (EP). The legal base put forward by the European Commission as part of its draft proposal may be changed by the Council, in conjunction with the EP.
A proposal of law.
The Advisory Committee on Safety, Hygiene and Health at Work, known as the Luxembourg Advisory Committee, was established in 1974 to advise the European Commission on health and safety at work matters. It is a tripartite committee, (governments, employers and workers all represented). Each year the LAC draws up a work programme in which it examines specific proposals for legislation or other action, or issues of concern in the field of health and safety. It frequently remits these items for consideration by working groups, known as Ad Hoc Groups (AHGs). AHGs deliver Opinions for adoption by the LAC at its Plenary meetings, which usually take place twice a year. The working procedures of the LAC will change within the next few years as it is currently under going a reorganisation.
Member of the European Parliament. There are 626 MEPs, and they meet in Brussels.
*This number is set to change following enlargement in 2004.
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A journal which is published by the European Commission.
This states the European Parliament’s view at First Reading of a proposal under the Co decision procedure.
The European Parliament (EP) sits in Plenary in order to vote on legislation. Amendments to proposals are suggested by the EP’s standing committees which then go forward to the Plenary sessions to be voted on by all MEPs.
A text of a legislative proposal, or part thereof, produced by the current EU Presidency as an attempted compromise to secure agreement between Member States and/or the European Commission where differing views exist.
A qualified majority is the number of votes required in the Council of Ministers for a decision to be adopted when issues are being debated on the basis of Article 205(2) of the EC Treaty. Member States' votes are weighted on the basis of their population and corrected in favour of less-populated countries.
A rapporteur is an MEP and a member of a standing committee who is charged with drawing up the European Parliament’s report to the standing committee and the European Commission on the legislative proposal that has been submitted. Their role is to research the background to the topic, bring forward their own ideas and combine them with a synthesis of the views of other Committee members. The rapporteur’s report is then the main basis for discussion in the European Parliament’s Plenary.
Ratification is when a state gives formal approval to abide by the terms of a treaty at international level. Amendments to treaties only come into force in the European Union after they have been ratified by all Member States. Some issues are so contentious in individual Member States that a referendum has to be held before ratification of a treaty can take place.
Social dialogue is the term used to describe a joint consultation procedure involving the Social Partners at European level (UNICE, CEEP, ESC). It involves discussion, joint action and sometimes negotiations between the European social partners, and discussions between the social partners and the Union institutions.
The European Commission is required to consult various social partners when it wants to submit proposals. This social dialogue occurs via the three main organisations representing the social partners at European level:
The European Commission's job is therefore to take all necessary steps to encourage and facilitate consultation with the social partners on the future development of Community action and on the content of any proposals on the European Union's social policy, which is essentially concerned with the labour market.
One of the different sub committees of the Council of Ministers. They advise, discuss and table amendments to the proposals submitted by the European Commission. The meetings are attended by members of UKRep. The majority of Health and Safety legislation is dealt with by this committee.
The European Parliament's (EP) standing committee do the preparatory work for EP's Plenary sessions. Each committee appoints a chairman, three vice-chairmen and has a secretariat. The committee then appoints a rapporteur, who is an MEP, to draw up reports on legislative proposals. In addition to these standing committees, the EP may set up temporary committees and committees of inquiry.
The process of writing European legislation into national legislation.
A Treaty is a document that binds 2 or more countries together to do something. It is a collection of commitments that have been negotiated, ratified and implemented. In terms of the European Union there are 7 main Treaties involved.
A formal trilogue is part of the Conciliation procedure. When the Council is not able to approve all of the European Parliament’s (EP) amendments, the Conciliation Committee is convened. Trilogues are meetings between the Council, the EP and the European Commission to try to work out a compromise. Before the Conciliation Committee is convened, the trilogues are informal, but once the Conciliation Committee starts its proceedings it only has 6 weeks in which to reconcile the positions of the EP and Council, so the trilogues are 'formal'.
One of the three forms of voting in the Council of Ministers, a proposal requiring unanimity must have no Member State voting against it (abstentions are considered to be vote in favour of the proposal).
Is the UK’s embassy to the European Union (EU). There are approximately 40 desk officers in UKRep each shadowing the work of one or more Councils. The role of UKRep is to:
These are sub committees of the Council of Ministers. They advise, discuss and table amendments to the proposals submitted by the European Commission. The meetings are attended by members of UKRep and are supervised/Chaired by members of COREPER
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