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A WIN IN EUROPE.

On Wednesday (11 February) the European Parliament voted in favour of amendments to the draft Directive on the Mutual Recognition of Professional Qualifications. The original draft would have allowed any practitioner from any EU country to work in another EU country unregistered, for up to 16 weeks.

The vote means (if the Directive is adopted in its amended format):

  • The '16 week rule' will be scrapped, and all dental professionals will need to be registered with the competent authority of the host country.
  • EU Member States will be required to share information about the fitness to practise of professionals moving between member states.
  • Migrant professionals will need to demonstrate their language skills before registration.

Responding to the vote, the President, of the UK General Dental Council [GDC], said:

"I am delighted with the outcome of last Wednesday's European Parliament vote. The GDC, as part of the Alliance of Health Regulators on Europe (AURE), has been campaigning on this proposed Directive since March 2002. Last November, the European Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee amended the Commission's original proposal to reflect issues raised by the GDC and AURE. This vote confirms that these have been taken seriously.

"GDC staff have been relentless in highlighting our concerns to UK health and government departments, lobbying MEPs in Strasbourg and Brussels, and working with dental regulators and professional associations across Europe to put pressure on their own governments. I am delighted that MEPs have recognised the shared concerns of health regulators and professional associations across Europe and acted to ensure that patient safety is protected.

"Wednesday's vote is good news for patients throughout the EU. It is also good news for the dental profession, in its determination to preserve high standards of care. We hope that these decisions will be endorsed by the European Council of Ministers later in the spring".

NOTE. The EU Directive on Mutual Recognition of Professional Qualifications has not yet been enacted. The original (unamended) draft Directive would have allowed healthcare professionals from any EU country to work for up to four months per year, every year, in another EU country, without being registered with a regulator. In practice, this would have meant that if there was a problem with the care a person received, the regulator would have had no powers to take action against the professional in question. There would also be no means of preventing the same problem from happening again with another patient.

 

Dr Allan R Thom (President FEO), Prof. Mirjana Sasic (President Serbian and Montenegro Orthodontic Society), Prof. Francesca Miotti (WFO Executive), Dr Olivier Mauchamp (WFO Executive and Chairman 2005 World Orthodontic Conference, Paris).