Doctors: free movement and mutual recognition of diplomas, certificates and others formal qualifications

While welcoming the generally positive result of the conciliation (on all three points under discussion, namely: qualifications awarded by third countries to Community nationals, the role of the Advisory Committee on Medical Training and comitology), the rapporteur mentioned the problems still to be resolved. In particular the problem of the equivalence of medical qualifications obtained outside the European Union (an issue on which the Commission had agreed to annex a declaration to the joint conciliation text) needed to be resolved within the more general framework of the system of mutual recognition of diplomas. The same applied to the issue of the numerus clausus which threatened to arise more and more frequently as professionals became increasingly mobile within the Community. Commissioner Brittan agreed with the rapporteur’s assessment of the conciliation results and confirmed that the Commission’s declaration on the need to ensure the equivalence of medical qualifications awarded outside the EU could be regarded as the first step towards solving the problem.