Brussels, 19/12/2011 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission on Monday 19 December brought forward its proposals revising the directive on recognising professional qualifications in the EU, where there are 800 regulated professions. The proposals suggest a European Professional Card, an optional electronic certificate which will allow professionals to have their qualifications recognised more simply and more quickly, and also an alert mechanism for health professionals who benefit from automatic recognition but who have been barred from exercising their profession in their country of origin. This mechanism will allow the health authorities of all 27 member states to be informed of the ban. These were calls backed by the European Parliament during the consultation phase.
The Commission also proposes extending recognition to professionals who have not quite gained their qualification (partial access) and to solicitors. It hopes, too, that the member states use the directive to consider whether it is necessary to retain so many regulated professions, it said on Monday.
The review of the 2005 directive seeks to respond to the shortage of qualified professionals that will have to be faced by the EU as a result of the ageing population. The Commission estimates that demand for highly skilled people will rise by over 16 million jobs between now and 2020. The proposal seeks to make it easier for professionals to move around Europe, simplifying arrangements for those who enjoy automatic recognition of qualifications (restricted to a limited number of professions, including doctors, pharmacists, dentists and vets) and for other professionals who can claim recognition of qualifications.
The Commission proposal amends only a few points of the 2005 directive. One of these points is that it harmonises the minimum training requirements for a number of professions, including, doctors, nurses and architects. For doctors, the proposal clarifies that basic medical education should be based on 5,500 training hours, which can be done within a minimum of five years. For nurses and midwives, it is proposed to upgrade the entry level to nursing/midwifery training from 10 years to 12 years of general education. For architects, the proposal sets the training at 6 years, consisting of either a university training of a minimum of four years, supplemented by supervised practical experience of a minimum of two years or a university training of at least five years, supplemented by supervised practical experience of a minimum of one year. These changes will make the tasks of the authorities responsible for recognition procedures much easier, the Commission says.
There is also a proposal that all citizens seeking the recognition of their professional qualifications should be able to go to a one-stop shop, which should be the Points of Single Contact created under the Services Directive, the Commission says, which will allow citizens to obtain information in one place about the documents required to have their qualifications recognised and where they can also complete all online recognition procedures.
The Commission also proposes “the introduction of common training frameworks and common training tests, replacing common platforms”, which “should offer the possibility to extend the mechanism of automatic recognition to new professions”. “Interested professions could benefit from automatic recognition on the basis of a common set of knowledge, skills and competences or on a common test assessing the ability of professionals to pursue a profession”, it says. The Commission hopes the legislative process on this review in the Council and European Parliament will be completed by the end of next year. (SP/transl.rt)