Asbestos

22.5.2015

Question for written answer E-008330-15
to the Commission
Rule 130
Alberto Cirio (PPE)

Despite the ban enforced by Italian Law No 257 of 27 March 1992, the issue of asbestos remains vitally important in Italy, even today. Chapter III of Italian Legislative Decree No 81/2008 is viewed as having transposed European Directive 2009/148/EC, in addition to implementing Article 1 of Italian Law No 123 of 3 August 2007 in relation to health and safety in the workplace. Workplace safety is, according to Article 117(3) of the Italian Constitution, a matter of shared competence between the government and individual regions — therefore, if a competent authority were to pass laws contradictory to the abovementioned legislative decree, that decree would become null and void within the region in which the legislative body has jurisdiction. If the Italian authorities truly bear the responsibility of ensuring respect for national provisions, as the European Commission itself has repeatedly emphasised, can the latter please answer the following questions:

Does it know whether any measures have been taken in Italy to ensure that legislation on asbestos has been adopted in each individual region?

Does it know what procedures have been introduced in Italy to verify the compliance of regional regulations with the provisions of the above European directive?

Does it know how Italy plans to assess the level of harmonisation between different regional regulations, in order to ensure a common minimum level of protection?