The main objective of the event was to discuss with CESI members, representatives of the interested stakeholder community and EU level political decision makers about the advantages and disadvantages that a revision of the EU’s Directive 2005/36/EC on the recognition of professional qualifications could bring, and to debate on the directive’s current impact on labour mobility in the EU and a balanced availability of health care workers across EU Member States. With support from trade unions representatives, the European Commission and various umbrella organizations, experts evaluated how the 2005/36/EC directive could be enhanced to better address modern healthcare challenges, including understaffing, demographic shifts, gender disparities, the impacts of COVID-19, emerging roles in healthcare, and digital technologies.

More specifically, the meeting explored:

1. pros and cons of revising the directive – and potential benefits and drawbacks that could result as a consequence.
2. possibilities to consider an inclusion of more health care professions under automatic recognition.
3. possible benefits of the revision on improving workforce mobility and addressing labour shortages, while maintaining fair labour mobility for regions that face emigration.

Agata Walaszczyk-Terrasse, Team Leader at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, presented the scope and coverage of the currently applicable directive and outlined the perspective of a forthcoming implementation report of the directive in June 2025, including an analysis of pros and cons invovled in a potential revision of the directive with respect to other health care professions.

Dolores Martínez, General Secretary of CESI’s Spanish member union SAE, representing nursing technicians, argued in favour of a revisino of the directive in order to allow broader automatic recognitions of health professions, including those from vocational training, to enhance mobility and address regional workforce shortages.

Representatives from CESI’s Spanish member union SATSE, representing of nurses, and from the European Federation of Nurses (EFN) however stated their opposition to such a revision, emphasising the importance of maintaining current minimum training requirements to ensure high standards of care and patient safety.

Tina Weber from Eurofound delivered an assessment of predicted workforce shortages in health care in the EU by 2030, highlighting the need for increased mobility and improved working conditions to draw in more workers and ensure balanced health care labour migration. She suggested that recognising qualifications of refugees and migrants, attracting underrepresented groups, and providing quality training and career development opportunities could help mitigate shortages.

CESI Secretary General Klaus Heeger welcomed the forthcoming 20-year anniversary of the directive and the positive impact is has generaelly had for European workforces. He highlighted the need for automatic recognitions to apply to more professions but agreed that ensuring minimum training requirements must be preserved for health care service quality reasons and more upward cohesion in the EU in terms of standards for similar level of training between Member States.

In conclusion, the discussion emphasised the need for a balanced approach to revising the directive, ensuring that expanding professional recognitions do not compromise the quality of training and patient care. This would involve a nuanced consideration of both current health care challenges and future workforce needs.

The event was part of CESI’s project ‘Active labour market policies in Europe: Successful designs and implementation through union participation’ (‘Activer‘), which is co-funded by the European Commission.