The joint statements by the employee and wage earners’ organizations work as a channel for exerting influence on the EU-level institutions and national governments. By the end of 2004 the European Chemical Employers’ Group (ECEG) and the European Mine, Chemical and Energy Workers’ Federation (EMCEF) issued their joint statements regarding the new chemicals legislation proposal, training and life-long learning as well as the Responsible Care programme.

The Responsible Care programme

The parties of the social dialogue maintain in a statement issued and signed on February 19, 2005 that the chemical industry driven Responsible Care programme is the most important global and voluntary safety initiative regarding environmental, health and safety issues.

In order to develop the commitment by personnel to continuous improvement of operations the parties established a cooperation group, which will monitor the results and implementation of the programme.

Reach – Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals

The parties of the social dialogue emphasize the role of competitiveness in the European chemical industry in a statement issues on October 27, 2003. Sustainable development is based on three areas: financial, social and environmental development.

To ensure the emergence of a practical chemicals proposal the parties support the training of personnel in the chemical industry and its customer industries, share information on best practices and are involved in the assessment regarding the functionality of the legislation. Moreover, the parties expect the new EU member countries to shoulder the same responsibilities.

Training and life-long learning

The parties of the social dialogue decided, as reported in the statement issued on September 10, 2004, to form a cooperation group, whose first task is to prepare an in-depth analysis of the competencies, vocational training and life-long learning in the different fields of the chemical industry. In the second stage the focus is on collecting information on national systems and producing descriptions of best practices. This shared and stored data will support the further development of competence.

Reach

The parties of the social dialogue in the chemical industry emphasize in the statement issued on September 16, 2005 their joint endeavour to improve the efficiency of the REACH proposal. The chemicals legislation under renewal should turn out simple, easy to use and efficient. It must guarantee the competitiveness of the European chemical industry, the secure maintenance of data and the introduction of innovative applications.