EAHP congratulates European Parliament on improved Professional Qualifications Directive

The European Association of Hospital Pharmacists (EAHP) has publicly congratulated MEPs for their scrutiny of legislation governing qualification recognition across national borders. In particular, MEPs achieved an opportunity to improve recognition of specialised qualifications in pharmacy, veterinary medicine and nursing.

Thanks to amendments secured by the European Parliament there will now be a formal legal avenue for specialisations such as hospital pharmacy to create a ‘common training framework’ across countries. National regulators of professional qualifications (‘competent authorities’) and professional associations in at least 10 countries can now establish a competence-based framework for automatic recognition of a specialist qualification. In the previous Directive on professional qualification recognition (Directive 2005/36/EC), only specialties of the medical and dental professions could benefit from such cross-border qualification recognition.

The final vote of the European Parliament on reforms to professional qualification recognition legislation took place on 9 October 2013, completing a two-year process of review. The text now needs to be formally approved by Member States before coming into law. The vote in Council is expected before the end of the year. Member States will then have until the end of 2015 (two years) to implement the provisions introduced by the revised Directive into national legislation.

EAHP President Dr Roberto Frontini said: “The recently completed review of the Professional Qualifications Directive showed the European Parliament at its best: picking up on missed issues in a Commission proposal and working across party groupings and countries to improve and enhance a legal text. Hospital pharmacists owe a debt of gratitude to the lead and shadow rapporteurs of the Parliament for navigating through the hundreds of issues on this all-encompassing legal file. In doing so they picked up on the need to lift restrictions in the Commission text preventing specialties of pharmacy from making use of the common training framework tool.

"With this approving vote from the European Parliament the onus now falls upon EAHP, its members and relevant national authorities to start the process of competency-alignment to form a mutual qualification recognition framework. With this in place, health systems and patients across Europe will be able to benefit from greater mobility amongst highly skilled and experienced health professionals who are dedicated to improving patient outcomes and patient safety.”

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