1. If an accident at work occurs or an occupational disease is diagnosed for the first time in a Member State other than the competent Member State, the declaration or notification of the accident at work or the occupational disease, where the declaration or notification exists under national legislation, shall be carried out in accordance with the legislation of the competent Member State, without prejudice, where appropriate, to any other applicable legal provisions in force in the Member State in which the accident at work occurred or in which the first medical diagnosis of the occupational disease was made, which remain applicable in such cases.

According to the EU-OSHA, more than 4,000 workers in the EU die each year due to accidents at work and more than 3 million workers are victims of a serious workplace accident leading to absences of more than 3 days.

With nearly 5 million accidents in 2000 [15] resulting in more than 3 days of absence from work in the EU, the Commission considers the number of accidents too high, even though the incidence rate (defined as the number of accidents at work per 100.000 persons in employment) has decreased between 1994 and 2000.

Vladimír Špidla, Commission (CS) Honourable Members, I should like to start by reminding the House that the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work was established by the European Union in 1994, in order to respond to the growing need for information on how to prevent work-related accidents.

More should also be done to improve our working environment so that we prevent accidents at work and work-related illnesses.

I believe that combating noise in the workplace is the best thing we can do to prevent injury at work and to prevent employees being permanently excluded from the labour market.