General background information

The majority of these endeavours seek proposals to simplify individual directives within EU law in order to increase its transparency and/or reduce the administrative burden. Attention should also be given, in keeping with the objectives formulated at the Lisbon summit, to ways in which "more and better jobs" can be maintained and further developed. This includes the creation of equal opportunities in competition through a uniform basic level of protection (Level Playing Field), and also the strengthening of the social dimension of the single market by improving the safety and health at the workplace and the participation of the social partners.

From this it follows, that there is a need to carry out a systematic, holistic and coherent evaluation of European OSH regulations, dealing with all relevant aspects, particularly necessity, adequacy and efficiency of all elements of the specific directives, including the annexes as well as the aim that directives should support Member States in formulating and implementing their own national policy.  (...)

The first step should be to draw up an evaluation guideline. This guideline should include all relevant aspects and should make it possible to prepare, implement and assess the evaluation in a systematic, comprehensive and precise manner. The stakeholders involved in the application of European OSH regulations should participate in drawing up the guideline and working out the relevant terms of reference. This will make it easier subsequently to implement the results of the
evaluation. It is also important that the evaluation is conducted in a neutral way. Independent external experts should be charged with carrying out the actual evaluation of EU OSH regulations.