Foreign minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi on Thursday marked the 63rd anniversary of the deadly fire at a coal mine in Marcinelle, Belgium that cost 262 people their lives - among them 136 Italians.
"The disaster is etched onto the collective memory of Italians because the fellow citizens who lost their lives were 136, more than half of the total. A terrible tragedy, with victims of eleven different nationalities, nine of which European," Moavero said in a statement.
"My personal thoughts feelingly go to all those who died at work, while fulfilling a noble duty and right of every human being. To die on the job is a very sad eventuality that we must commit to prevent with every possible means," the statement went on.
Moavero called for greater regulation at national, European and international level to ensure on-the-job safety and prevent accidents at work, noting that the European Union is about to open a new legislature following European Parliament elections in May.
"I think that it is truly important that EU Institutions hastily indicate the initiatives they intend to bring forward, phased into a precise calendar..to predispose an effective fabric of European rules to organically address the most urgent socially relevant issues indispensable to reduce the no longer acceptable and anachronistic asymmetries among EU States," Moavero underlined.
The 1956 Marcinelle disaster occurred on 8 August - now Italy's National Day of the Sacrifice of Italian Workers in the World, Moavero underlined.
