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Letters to the Editor
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Free movement in Europe
Language testing for EU pharmacists — position clarified
From Mr J. Ferguson, FRPharmS
I was interested to read the report of the discussion at the branch
representatives’ meeting on the motion on language
test for pharmacists from other EU member states (PJ, 29 May, p685). Members reading the report
will not, in my view, be as well informed as they might be on the current
situation.
The present EU directives on free movement of pharmacists do not permit
a language test before authorisation to practise. However, under the
legislation in the UK that brought the directives into effect, hospital
authorities are permitted to make necessary language skills a criterion
for employment. As David Pruce pointed out, the Council sought to deal
with the situation in the community pharmacy sector via the Code of Ethics.
Indeed, under the guidance to the first obligation in the code, before
its most recent revision, it was made clear that “in the interests
of the public, a pharmacist should have sufficient knowledge of the English
language to enable that pharmacist to communicate effectively with all
those to whom services are provided”. Mr Pruce suggests that this
is “implicit” in the current code.
In March 2002, the European Commission presented to the European Parliament
and the Council of Ministers its proposals for consolidation of all the
directives dealing with recognition of professional qualifications. The
draft directive contained the following:
Article 49 — Knowledge of languages
1. Persons benefiting from the recognition of professional qualifications
shall have a knowledge of languages necessary for practising the profession
in the host member state
2. The member states shall ensure that, where appropriate, the beneficiaries
acquire the language knowledge necessary for performing their professional
activity in the host member state
The European Parliament wanted the words “before the person is
permitted to practise in the member state” to be added to paragraph
2.
Progress on the draft directive has been slow mainly because of the large
number of changes wanted by the European Parliament during the Italian
presidency. Many of these were promoted by the health professions, which
were concerned about the proposed lack of controls on cross border provision
of services. However, political agreement was finally reached at the
lengthy May 2004 meeting of the Competitiveness Council (previously the
Single Market Council) on a compromise text presented during the meeting
by the Irish presidency. Article 49 now reads:
1. Persons benefiting from the recognition of professional qualifications
should have a knowledge of languages necessary for practising the profession
in the host member state
Thus “shall” in the original paragraph 1 has been replaced
by “should” and paragraph 2 has been deleted.
The question that must now be addressed is whether this new wording will
permit a regulatory body such as the Royal Pharmaceutical Society to
make competence in communication skills a condition of the grant of authority
to practise. That appears to be far from certain under the new wording.
The draft directive will go back to the European Parliament for second
reading after the forthcoming elections. If agreement cannot be reached
between the institutions of the EU, the conciliation procedure will be
applied.
Mike Burden implied at the BRM that it would be some years before any
change could be expected. Happily that is not the case with the specific
proposals in the draft directive, which is well along the legislative
process. However, there is much lobbying yet to be done if the desired
outcome on the language test provision, and other articles with important
implications for the health professions, is to be achieved.
John Ferguson
Haywards Health, West Sussex
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal