THE RECOGNITION OF PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS AND PROBLEM OF NECESSARY LANGUAGE SKILLS IN HEALTHCARE PROFESSION

Abstract

Freedom to provide cross border healthcare services has been regulated under Directive 2011/24/EU of the European Parliament and Council from 9 March 2011 (OJ L 88, 4.4.2011). It was implemented in the EU Member States by the end of 2013. Taking into account principles of universality, access to quality health care, justice and solidarity, cross border health care is provided in accordance with the rules of the Member State of treatment, standards on quality and safety as established by the Member States of treatment and EU legislation on safety standards. One of the problems which the authors have detected in the practice is the language of the service providers, especially when they want to provide their services in a Member State other than their State of affiliation. Directive 2005/36/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 7 September 2005 on the recognition of professional qualifications guarantees to persons who have acquired professional qualifications in one of the Member States when carrying out this profession in another Member State the same rights as nationals of that Member State. This Directive applies to regulated professions, including a large number of health professions, such as medical doctors, doctors of dental medicine, pharmacists, nurses and midwives. The aim of Directive is to eliminate barriers and restrictions on the free movement of persons and services between Member States, particularly the right to perform a certain regulated profession. Its goal is to ensure that persons who have acquired professional qualification in one of the Member States have access to the same profession in another Member State under equal conditions as the nationals of that Member State. The recognition of professional qualifications of the host Member State provides access to a regulated profession for which the person qualifies in the Member State of affiliation. Regulated profession implies a professional activity or group of professional activities in which the approach and conduct, or way of doing business on the basis of legislation or by-laws directly or indirectly depend upon possession of specific professional qualifications ; as well as professional activity or the group of professional activities which deal with members of professional organizations with a professional title. Directive requires that professionals have the necessary language skills. However, this obligation is not quite clear. The authors have investigated related ECJ case law and found confirmation that this obligation should be clarified. The analysis of the role of the competent authorities and employers showed that sometimes they abuse their powers in order to protect national labour market and domestic workers. It is therefore very important to establish and maintain some sort of control mechanism in the field of health services, bearing in mind the interest of patients, which can be seen a consumers because they are receiving a service under the meaning of the Directive 2006/123/EC on services in the internal market.