Professionals oppose proposals on mutual recognition of qualifications

Citation

(2003), "Professionals oppose proposals on mutual recognition of qualifications", Career Development International, Vol. 8 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/cdi.2003.13708aab.003

Professionals oppose proposals on mutual recognition of qualifications

Professionals oppose proposals on mutual recognition of qualifications

Professionals such as doctors, dentists, pharmacists and architects have attacked European Commission proposals to make it easier for people who have qualified in one EU member state to practise in another.

The Commission plans to replace the current system for the mutual recognition of professional qualifications – which is administered by professionals and experts within each respective profession and uses different criteria for each – with a new system which would be administered by a committee and apply across the board. But members of the seven professions involved prefer the status quo, and claim they are better at judging equivalence than a committee would be.

Moreover, the medical professions are united against the Commission proposal that doctors, dentists and nurses would be able to practise in a host country for up to 16 weeks before registering and having their qualifications accepted as valid. The Alliance of UK Health Regulators in Europe believes this could compromise patient safety because, if a problem arose, the regulators would have no powers to take action against the professional person involved.

But Unice, the European employers' group, favours the proposals because they would reduce the length of time needed for professionals to have their qualifications recognized abroad.