Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-01-15-Speech-4-023"
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"en.20040115.1.4-023"2
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"Mr President, some 15 years ago, as a young academic, I applied for and was offered a post at the Free University of Berlin. As a result of the problem of mutual recognition of qualifications, many months passed before I was able to take up my position.
This directive must, I believe, ensure that professionals do not face the same uncertainty and obstacles I encountered in exercising the right, as an EU citizen, to exercise one's profession in the single market. Moreover, if the Commissioner's new plan for a radical freeing-up of the market for cross-border services is to succeed, the free movement of skilled professionals will be vital to it.
Specific safeguards are necessary in the health care sector. I too tabled amendments to abolish the 16-week rule. I thank the rapporteur and the committee for supporting those amendments. It is true that the rule would possibly have allowed bogus health care professionals and those struck off for malpractice to work in another Member State without having to register with the host country's regulatory body.
Mr Bowis mentioned the case of Dr Shipman, a doctor in my constituency who may have murdered up to 200 patients after forcing some of them to change their wills in his favour. However, Dr Shipman was not struck off for malpractice and he was never identified as a problem by the UK's own regulatory body. Patient health and safety must be paramount, but it must not be an excuse to block the free movement of professionals. I know that Commissioner Bolkestein is sensitive to this issue. In the UK, the legacy of a Conservative government is an acute shortage of doctors. It makes no sense to have barriers to free movement, but I hope that the final directive gets the balance right between allowing and encouraging the free movement of health care professionals, plus automatic recognition of rights for more than 50 categories of medical specialist – in particular much-needed cancer specialists, and continuing to safeguard patient health and safety."@en1
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