Liz Lynne challenges Barroso on Commission Work Programme

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Tue 15th Nov 2005

As the European Commission today presented its 2006 work programme to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Liz Lynne demanded action on some of the important issues facing Europe.

Speaking in Strasbourg today Liz Lynne commented:

"I welcome many aspects of the Commission work programme, but I am disappointed there is not more mention of elderly or disabled people, in particular the need for specific directives on age and disability"

On the issue of health and safety at work, Liz again challenged the Commission to tackle the issue of needle stick injuries at work.

"It is estimated that 1 million such injuries occur in Europe each year, many of which are avoidable and cause untold misery for our front line health workers, they must be better protected"

Liz discussed the need for better regulation and said;

"I welcome President Barosso's commitment to cut down on unnecessary legislation and burdens on business.

"In that spirit the Commission must look again at legislation like the electro magnetic fields directive and the serious impact it could have on the use of state of the art MRI scanners throughout the European Union"

ENDS

Notes to Editors:

Liz Lynne MEP is co- chair of the European Disability Intergroup, Shadow Rapporteur for the Better Regulation Report in the Employment Committee and Employment spokesperson for the UK Liberal Democrat Party in the European Parliament.

Commission Work Programme 2006

The Commission's rules of procedure provide that the Commission defines annual priorities and adopts a work programme for each year. The Commission's annual work programme translates the annual policy strategy into policy objectives and an operational programme of decisions to be adopted by the Commission. It sets out major political priorities and identifies legislative initiatives, executive and other acts that the Commission intends to adopt for the realisation of these priorities. The President presents the Commission work programme to Parliament and the Council.