European Union-wide rules on offshore health and safety could lead oil and gas companies into a “legal nightmare”, a committee in Brussels will be told today.
The European Parliament’s environment, public health and food safety committee meets to discuss plans for the European Commission to seize regulatory control of the oil and gas industry.
Costs for implementing the measures have been estimated at £150million, with critics in the UK urging that Britain’s world-leading approach to health and safety should not be put at risk.
Scottish Conservative MEP Struan Stevenson will call today for a directive allowing UK authorities to incorporate new rules into their own system.
He said: “The UK has a proven world-class safety regime; oil and gas workers based out of Aberdeen know that their working environment is the envy of the world.
“These proposals could walk us into a legal nightmare in an industry where we have seen that the results of bad legislation can be catastrophic.”
A final decision on the regulations is expected later this month.