Euro Brief
1-15 April 2005 No. 7/2005
- Commission "Ready to respond to bird flu threat"
- GMC identity check for EEA Doctors
- Parliament report removes health from services directive
- Professions want a role in monitoring recognition of diplomas
- Bulgaria and Romania set to join EU in 20 months time
The Commission indicated its willingness to respond to the global threat of a flu epidemic in the light of persistent fears over the avian flu outbreak in Asia.
The Commission made a special statement to MEPs in Strasbourg on the containability of H5N1 which has scientists and health officials on high alert since discoveries that it is a fast-evolving zoonose that might soon be transmitted from human to human.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) warned in January that there are signs of the disease evolving. The EU has extended, until September this year, imports of all poultry products from eight Asian countries following a review by the Standing Committee of the Food Chain and Animal Health.
The EU’s Network on Communicable Diseases is the basis for comprehensive surveillance and monitoring system. The European Influenza Surveillance System (EISS) operates within this directive.
The Community Influenza Preparedness Plan was set up in March 2004 for the purpose of pandemic planning at Community level and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control based in Stockholm is due to start work in May.
GMC identity check for EEA Doctors
Pre-registration identity checks have been introduced by the GMC for all doctors who are EEA or Swiss nationals. This will bring doctors, exercising recognition rights under EU rules, in line with UK medical school graduates and international graduates who take the PLAB test.
The new procedures were brought in on 1st April and is in response to the UK's growing problem with identity theft, says the GMC
Parliament report removes health from services directive
"Health services must be excluded from the scope of this directive, since there would otherwise be a blatant contradiction with the ...Treaty". That is the conclusion of the European Parliament Rapporteur for the controversial Services Directive.
German Social Democrat MEP, Evelyne Gebhardt released her long-awaited Report in Strasbourg on 13th April with the message that the scope of the Directive should be hugely scaled back.
Gebhardt has even dumped the core principle of the proposal, the "Country of Origin Principle" which entitles the service provider to operate according to the rules of his/her home state rather than those of the host state.
That principle proved too contentious for health care providers and certain exceptions were made for doctors shortly before the Commission published the draft directive. However the health sector as a whole remained in the scope of the directive.
Gebhardt, who is charged with steering the legislation through Parliament, excludes several sectors including postal, transport, energy and communication.
She is insisting on a separate directive for Services of General Interest, which exist for a social purpose and which are primarily funded by the State. The Commission had not waited for a draft directive defining SGIs to be completed and the BMA in June last year called for the Commission to finalise the process defining SGIs before proceeding with the Services Directive.
In any event her amendments to the legislation make it clear that SGIs would be removed from the scope. She has done this without listing the sectors she wants to see removed.
Nevertheless, she is clear in Article 2, which originally says simply that the directive shall apply to services supplied by a provider established in a Member State i.e.: all services, making up some 70% of the economy. Gebhardt adds, "1c. This Directive shall not apply to services which, while being commercial in nature, pursue a general interest objective and are thus subject to specific public sector funding requirements, in particular: (a) health and social security and other social and welfare services." The BMA called for health to be removed from the scope of this directive early in 2004.
Members of the Internal Market Committee will discuss this Report on 19th April. It is not known when the vote in committee and the subsequent First Reading vote in Parliament will take place.
Professions want a role in monitoring recognition of diplomas
Seven professions, currently covered by a sectoral regime for automatic recognition of professional qualifications in Europe have issued a joint statement to request a role in the monitoring of a new Directive on qualifications. The seven professions; doctors, nurses, midwives, pharmacists, dentists, veterinarians and architects have enjoyed their own sectoral directives for years and were properly consulted in any changes to the qualifications, training periods or specialities recognised in other EU
countries.
However, the European Commission has proposed a new super-Directive incorporating the sectoral directives as well as more general systems of recognition. The European Parliament has started its Second Reading on the draft directive. The seven professions want to ensure that they are properly consulted under the new system and are also calling for observer status on the Regulatory Committee to be set up by the Directive.
The Internal Market Committee in the European Parliament discussed a draft report by Italian MEP, Stefano Zappala and set a date for their second reading vote; 19th April. The Parliament is expected to stage the full plenary vote on 11th May.
Bulgaria and Romania set to join EU in 20 months time
The European Parliament approved the Accession Treaty on 13 April paving the way for Bulgaria and Romania to join the EU on 1st January 2007.
The two candidate countries must first implement agreed economic and political reforms, including the fight against corruption, strengthening their administration system and introducing competition measures. The accession may be postponed until 2008 if they fail to meet these requirements.
Both countries are expected to sign the accession Treaty on 25th April.