On 23 January 2013, the European Parliament Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) Committee has positively voted on Bernadette Vergnaud’s report on the modernisation of the Mutual Recognition of Professional Qualifications Directive. Still to be voted in Plenary soon, Bernadette Vergnaud’s report represents a high consolidated position of members of the European Parliament that will enhance and foster a confident application of the Single Market. After months of hard lobby work and highly supported by the EFN members, the IMCO Committee has reached solid compromises on the most crucial topics for the nurses of Directive 36.
Very positively for the EFN, the most important issue for the nurses, Article 31 – training of nurses responsible for general care – embraces existing systems of nurse education, reinforces the number of years (3 years) AND hours (4.600 hours) for nurse training, keeps the right balance of theory (1/3) and practice (1/2) and allows delegated acts to further update the Annexe V. Solid compromises have been also reached on partial access, language requirements, common training frameworks, alert mechanism, Continuous Professional Development, among others.
For the EFN this has been an exciting challenge and process until the vote in the IMCO Committee, as we have been negotiating with the MEPs until the last minute to get EFN’s concerns taken into account. We have now a solid position of Parliament which includes EFN’s views and that we can take further with the Council. The 1st reading/single reading is expected to be on 22 May 2013, under the Irish Presidency, which is aiming to close this file before the end of its term (30 June 2013).
