Strasbourg, 19/01/2004 (Agence Europe) - The debate at the European Parliament plenary in Strasbourg on 15 January on the report by Stefano Zappalà (Forza Italia) on the draft directive on the recognition of professional qualifications gave a foretaste of tough negotiations over the huge number of amendments (215) tabled to the proposal, the Commission's attempt to simplify the sixteen current directives into a single piece of legislation. The vote on the report in first reading under the codecision procedure is scheduled for the February plenary.
Last week, many MEPs intervened in the debate, commenting that the rapporteur had made a great effort to strike a balance over this highly charged issue and noting that they shared the principles he espouses, namely the freedom to supply services, the freedom of establishment and recognition of professional experience while respecting criteria to protect consumers and stakeholders. The future enlargement of the European Union justifies the simplification, commented European Commissioner Frits Bolkestein, recognising that certain problems were faced by some professions.
Luciana Sbarbati (Liberal group, Italy), speaking for the Petitions Committee, highlighted the huge number of petitions received by the Committee from citizens pointing out the obstacles still in place for workers wishing to move around in the EU. She said that national legislation was too complex and there were gaps in countries' automatic recognition of diplomas (and the desire to rectify them). German Christian Democrat Klaus-Heiner Lehne slammed the draft directive as being too bureaucratic and incomprehensible. He opposed the approach taken of sorting out problems ranging from the carpenter to the surgeon in a single document, saying it would be better to take a sector-by-sector approach. We should not over-simplify, but simplifications must be made, replied Neil McCormick, Scottish National Party MEP. Several MEPs discussed problems they had faced themselves, like British Labour MEP Arlene McCarthy in her attempts to become a "wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin" at Berlin University. Many speakers mentioned problems specific to certain professions, particularly problems facing engineers. German Social Democrat Evelyne Gebhardt, for example, hailed the sustained work by MEPs on the Commission's draft, although she noted the outcome was not perfect. British Conservative Malcolm Harbour, himself an engineer, called for the setting up of special platforms for engineers.
Many MEPs focussed on consumer protection, like British Conservative John Bowis, calling for the establishment of a European database to ensure that doctors struck off in one country could not go and work in another Member State. The issue of reconciling the freedom to supply services with consumer protection was echoed by many other MEPs, for example Irish Fine Gael MEP Avril Doyle, who along with others called for a special approach to be taken to healthcare professions with the possibility of establishing special provisions for specific categories alongside the general system. The Zappalà report was given a very warm welcome by Giuseppe Gargani, also a Forza Italia MEP, enthusiastically expressing his party's great ambition to give rules in Europe to intellectual professions, thereby contributing to European citizenship, saying this was almost as important as adopting a Constitution. Greek Communist Konstantinos Alyssandrakis saw the proposal as an attempt to reduce the education system in the Member States to the lowest common denominator, thereby putting downward pressure on salaries and scorning workers' interests. Fellow Greek MEP Konstantinos Hatzidakis, of Nea Demokratia, disagreed, highlighting the particular problems faced by Greece, like the existence of small universities which in his view did not work very well.