Getting the ‘work safety’ message to Europe’s SMEs
News release - 03.06.2003
The first safety and health-funding scheme aimed at Europe’s SMEs, initiated by the European Parliament and the European Commission, has produced a total of 51 innovative accident prevention projects across the industries and countries of the European Union. The SME Funding Scheme, which focuses on the need to promote enhanced work safety standards in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), is managed by the Bilbao-based European Agency for Safety and Health at Work
The first safety and health-funding scheme aimed at Europe’s SMEs, initiated by the European Parliament and the European Commission, has produced a total of 51 innovative accident prevention projects across the industries and countries of the European Union. The SME Funding Scheme, which focuses on the need to promote enhanced work safety standards in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), is managed by the Bilbao-based European Agency for Safety and Health at Work
The scheme generated over 300 examples of good practice, nearly 500 public presentations and training courses with nearly 4,000 participants. ‘The success of the SME scheme has now been confirmed by an independent evaluation,’ comments Hans Horst Konkolewsky, Director of the Agency. ‘This concluded that more than 500,000 SMEs have benefited directly or indirectly from the scheme and that it indeed has contributed to a reduction of accident risks in these companies.’
The total investment in this first exercise was over €8 million, of which €4.5 million came from the Agency through the SME Funding Scheme (2001-2002).
The projects reflected the strong commitment of many organisations and companies to reduce the severity and rate of accidents in SMEs as well as many innovative ideas for the development and exchange of good practice in the field. They cover a broad range of sectors and issues: training Irish craft butchers in safety and health measures, shielding Austrian health professionals from occupational infections transmitted through stabs or cuts, minimising occupational hazards and stress in the Swedish graphics industries, and enhancing safety standards for Belgian ‘caretaker’ farmers.
All of the projects are featured in the newly published report, Promoting health and safety in European small and medium-sized enterprises, which is available on the Agency website at: http://agency.osha.europa.eu/sme/index_en.htm
ENDS
Further information:
please refer to the Agency website at http://osha.europa.eu.
Press contacts:
Françoise Murillo or Brenda O’ Brien, European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, Bilbao. Tel: (34) 94 479 43 82 or (34) 94 479 35 41 e-mail: murillo@osha.europa.eu or obrien@osha.europa.eu.
Other enquiries:
European Agency for Safety and Health at Work, Gran Via 33, E-48009 Bilbao, Spain, e-mail: information@osha.europa.eu, fax: (34) 94 479 43 83.
Notes to editors
- In line with the Commission recommendation, and for the purpose of the SME schemes, SMEs are defined as enterprises which have fewer than 250 workers. Small firms are defined as enterprises which have fewer than 50 workers. Micro firms are defined as enterprises which have fewer than 10 workers.
- SME Funding Schemes: Europe's small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) employ more than 65% of the EU's workforce and account for over 99% of the EU's 18 million enterprises, outside the agricultural sector. However, due to a lack of financial and organisational resources, many SMEs have only limited occupational health and safety knowledge and capacity. In 2001, the Agency awarded grants for 51 National and Transnational/European projects aimed at reducing the number and seriousness of accidents in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
- The 51 successful projects cover a very broad range of sectors and issues. Sixteen of them are transnational, 35 national with all EU Member States represented. While seventeen are general in nature, the rest address specific industry issues, for example work accidents in the construction industry (12 projects), in metalworking (5), paper and graphics (4), agriculture, food and transport (2 each).
- The second SME Funding Scheme (2002-2003) is currently up and running, with projects due for completion in the Autumn. Applications for the third scheme (2003-2004) have been invited, details of which are available on the Agency website.
- The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work was set up by the European Union to help meet the information needs in the field of occupational safety and health. Based in Bilbao, Spain, the Agency aims to improve the lives of people at work by stimulating the flow of technical, scientific and economic information between all those involved in occupational safety and health issues.
