25th anniversary of the EU OSHA Agency

In 2019, the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) celebrates 25 years of successfully building and mobilising a pan-European network of partners, all committed to making Europe’s workplaces safer, healthier and more productive.
Occupational safety and health (OSH) has been an integral part of the European project from its outset, in 1951 in the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC),
The decision to set up the Agency was made at a Council Summit in October 1993 and the Regulation  establishing EU-OSHA was subsequently adopted in 1994
Its mission consists of :

  • developing, gathering and providing quality-assured information, analysis and tools to advance knowledge, raising awareness and exchanging OSH information and good practice
  • being a recognised leader promoting safe and healthy workplaces in Europe to ensure a smart, sustainable, productive and inclusive economy.

 

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FIEC welcomes Asha Hirsi

We are very happy to welcome her to our team as a trainee. Asha will stay with us from January to June. Asha is a current student at Coventry University with a great passion for media communications and branding. From this internship, she hopes to gain a deeper insight into the European construction industry as well as helping to further develop FIEC’s existing communications tools.

Connecting Europe Facility for 2021-2027: tough political discussions started

Political negotiations are moving forward regarding the revision of the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) – aimed at funding transport, energy and telecom infrastructure projects – for the period 2021-2027.
In December, the Council adopted a “partial” general approach which was basically in line with the Commission’s initial proposal of June 2018 (but without any decision on the concrete budget allocated). The European Parliament adopted a more ambitious Resolution which was welcomed by FIEC: higher budget (43.8 billion euros instead of 42.2 billion euros), higher co-financing rates, infrastructure safety aspects taken into account, stronger reciprocity principle in public procurement when EU grants are engaged, etc.
Council, Parliament and Commission had a first trilogue meeting on 22nd January and intend to reach a political agreement by March. However, no agreement on the full text can be reached as the budget part cannot be finalised due to the ongoing negotiations on the post-2020 multiannual financial framework (i.e. overall EU budget) which are expected to last until this autumn.
In the meantime, several substantive and sensitive issues have to be discussed, in particular the financing of cross-border projects and the scope of the new “military mobility” section (civilian-military dual-use of transport infrastructure). However, the Council is not ready to negotiate on the issue of third countries (reciprocity concept) at this stage.

 

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