PRESS RELEASE

For immediate release: 13 January 2005

Professional Qualifications Proposal:

AURE welcomes Council Common Position and urges European Parliament to address outstanding patient safety concerns

13 January 2005: The Alliance of UK Health Regulators on Europe (AURE) welcomes the Common Position recently adopted by the Council of Ministers on the proposed EU Directive on recognition of professional qualifications. AURE believes the Council-approved text is a good compromise and a positive step forward from the European Commission’s original proposal.

Matt Ball, Convenor of AURE, said:

“In most areas the Council has achieved the right balance between the will to foster free movement of professionals throughout the EU and the need to protect patients’ safety effectively, thanks to a number of safeguards which have been introduced by the Member States”.

AURE is particularly pleased that the Common Position now provides specific safeguards for patients, by ensuring that healthcare professionals who wish to practice temporarily in another Member State must register with the regulatory authorities in that State.

However, some outstanding areas of concern remain, and AURE urges the Members of the European Parliament to further ensure patient safety by addressing the following important issues during its Second Reading of the proposed Directive:

• The need for improved information-sharing in cases where a professional has been deemed unfit to practise in his home state, through a pro-active and continuous compulsory data exchange between countries;
• The need for the Directive to include a specific reference to a separate advisory sub-committee for healthcare and social care professions, in order to ensure the appropriate level of professional expertise necessary to oversee and manage issues relating to professional qualifications in these areas;
• The need for the regulatory authority of the host Member State to be able to satisfy itself of the language proficiency of migrating healthcare professionals before registering them to practise.

AURE would like to congratulate the European Parliament and the Council for their work and achievements thus far. The Alliance now wishes the Parliament every success in completing its Second Reading of this important proposal that, once adopted, will affect 450 million citizens in the newly enlarged European Union.

ENDS

For further information and interviews with the Alliance spokespeople please contact:

Matt Ball, Convenor of AURE on +44 20 7189 5436,

or Richard Marchant, Policy Advisor of AURE on +44 20 7189 5024 .

Notes to editors:

1. The membership of the Alliance (AURE) is: General Medical Council General Dental Council General Optical Council General Osteopathic Council General Chiropractic Council, Health Professions Council Nursing and Midwifery Council Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain General Social Care Council and the Pharmaceutical Society of Northern Ireland.

2. These organisations are statutory bodies that exist to regulate those healthcare professionals who operate in these areas.

3. The Council adopted the common position on the proposal for a Directive on the recognition of professional qualifications on 21 December 2004, following the political agreement reached by the Member States by qualified majority on 18 May 2004, with the German and Greek delegations voting against. The text was transmitted to the European Parliament on 13 January 2005 for Second Reading.

4. Additional information can be found on www.aure.org.uk