The European Parliament Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) met yesterday 10 January 2013, to discuss the draft compromise amendments of Directive 2005/36/EC on the recognition of professional qualifications and have a last discussion before the vote next 23 January 2013. The Rapporteur – MEP Bernadette Vergnaud – presented the state of play on the 12 issues of the proposal where compromises have been discussed, and of which many are close to being finalised, including: partial access, traineeships, professional card, alert mechanism, and language checks for health professionals. Although no clear compromise amendment for the nurses was presented as it still need to be discussed in the coming days (namely in the shadow rapporteurs’ meeting on 16 January 2013, in Strasbourg) Bernadette Vergnaud tackled the nurses’ debate very firmly, stressing that she is very keen on finding a compromise solution that aligns with the demands of healthcare and the evolution of the profession. She also highlighted that she met the German Ministry of Health recently to renegotiate with him the German position in order to include the major concerns of the rest of the EU Member States and the overall nursing community on this nursing debate. Very briefly presented, a compromise amendment on Article 31 will set on 12 years the general rule to access nursing education and will allow some exceptions for the countries (as Germany) where the nursing training starts at a lower level. It is expected that the proposed competences to be included in Article 31 will be reformulated. The EFN, and its members, are now taking this window of opportunity to influence the shadows rapporteur meeting and the vote on 23 January, to contact their MEPs, the shadows MEPs, and other key actors, to reinforce their support to EFN’s position on the 12-year nursing education requirement. In this context, and taking into account that the rapporteur is French, the French Regulatory body – L’Ordre National des Infirmiers (Mr Didier Borniche) – and the French Union (Mr Philip Derleder) are encouraged to influence their French MEPS. The EFN appreciates their efforts to change MEP Le Grip vote in support of the German two-tier system.