KANBrief 4/24
Our office is located close to the EU institutions – right where our most important contacts are also to be found. One of our core tasks is to ascertain what legislative projects are in the pipeline and what the European Commission is planning for the future. We must then assess whether, and if so on what scale, these projects may impact on social insurance. We draw on a comprehensive network of personal contacts to exert influence on political decisions. To this end, we talk to politicians on a regular basis and offer our specialist expertise to support them in reaching decisions.
A good example is workplace exposure to asbestos. In December 2025, the proposed directive adopted last year will lower the limit for asbestos fibres from the current value of 0.1 to 0.01 per cm³. To explain what is actually feasible in practice, we spoke with the European Commission in the run-up to the legislative process and with MEPs as it progressed. Above all, we attached importance to measurement of the new limit value actually being possible by means of the methods available. This required us to explain the finer technical points and details as simply and plausibly as possible, and in English, German and French. The Member States have until December 2029 to adapt their measurement methods; after this transitional period, electron microscopy will be the sole method to be used for detecting asbestos fibres.
It goes without saying that we also regularly discuss all relevant initiatives with the institutions we represent, and agree a common position on numerous topics. Within a single week, I may be discussing occupational safety and health issues one day and pharmaceuticals, medical devices, chemicals or social security for platform workers on the days that follow. Added to that are the numerous initiatives and discussions resulting from demographic change and the digital and green transitions. These include, for example, the question of how, in an ageing society, older people can be assured of an appropriate income.
Our interest in providing employees with safe and healthy workplaces is what links us to KAN. Standardization has an important function in assuring product safety, for example. However, we frequently have contact with standardization in other areas relating to occupational safety and health. For example, like KAN, we’re observing developments in the field of artificial intelligence, and we’ve discussed the amendment of the EU Machinery Regulation at length with KAN in recent years. KAN’s expertise is valued highly in all European Commission initiatives relating to occupational safety and health, and we appreciate being able to just pick up the phone and call the Secretariat. I remember having many conversations some years ago regarding initiatives at European level to develop standards for healthcare services. There too, we developed joint activities by which we could steer the issue in the right direction. Our regular dialogue will continue to be important in this legislative period, since evaluation of the Standardisation Regulation is a matter of interest to the DSV as well as to KAN.
ESIP unites 45 social insurance institutions in 17 European countries under one roof. This enables us to pool ideas and to find common solutions to challenges such as digitalization and climate change, despite differences in the structures of our social security systems. In addition, the EU institutions in Brussels, particularly the European Commission, are primarily interested in European opinions. For that reason, we present German interests to ESIP and then seek to join our partners in forming these interests into a European voice. ESIP therefore serves as the mouthpiece of social insurance in Europe.