The RPQ Legislative Proposal

After two years of evaluation and consultation, the European Commission published, on 19th December 2011, its Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and the Council amending Directive 2005/36/EC on the recognition of professional qualifications, and the Regulation on administrative cooperation through the Internal Market Information (IMI) system. (COM(2011) 883/2).   There was also a rage of supporting documents, but 883/2 is the prime one at this stage.

The UK National Co-ordinator at BIS immediately called for points to be included in the UK Government negotiating position by midday on 4th January 2012.  Many UKIPG members met this deadline and some shared their responses with the UKIPG Secretary.  However, not enough were received by 3rd January to develop a fully 'staffed' UKIPG formal input.  To ensure that the opportunity was not missed, the UKIPG put in a Secretariat response, based on an initial review of the document against our Public Consultation and Green Paper responses, and other points made in discussions in various forums.  The Secretary has tidied up this work under the title: 'Some Points from UK Inter Professional Group (UKIPG) Secretary on the Legislative Proposal for Modernising the RPQ Directive'.  As this is still a Secretariat document to stimulate discussion, it is 'behind the password' rather than on the public part of the web-site.

There are two opportunities provided to learn more about and discuss this proposal, as follows:

• Meeting hosted by BIS at 1 Victoria Street on 26th January 2012 from 1000 - 1200, with with Jurgen Tiedje, head of the European Commission's Free Movement of Professionals unit, and Claire Bury, Director for Services (including Free Movement of Professionals) in the European Commission. in attendance.  Registration through Phil Sydenham. The UKIPG Secretary plans to attend.
• Meeting hosted by the Commission in Brussels on 2nd February 2012, dealing with the proposal in detail between 1000 and 1700.  The programme for this event has just been issued.  As usual, the admin is being handled by Ann Vande-Walle at the Commission. It is believed that the event is already fully booked but there will be a live video link. The UKIPG Secretary plans to attend.

As we have moved from the preparation of a legislative proposal, the 'action' now very must rests with the European Parliament and Council and Ministers.  From a UK perspective, it will be useful to know that the work to date in the Parliament has been overseen by the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee (IMCO).  The Chairman of IMCO is Malcolm Harbour, a UK MEP.  The person who has cooordinated IMCO work so for, and produced its Report, is another UKMEP, Emma McClarkin.  However, it is understood that Bernadette Vergnaud, a French MEP is likely to become Rapporteur.  A Resolution of the Parliament was approved on 15th November.