The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), the European Trade Union Committee for Education (ETUCE), the European Public Service Union (EPSU), the Council of European Professional and Managerial Staff (EUROCADRES) and the European Council of Liberal Professions (CEPLIS) note with satisfaction that the adoption process of the Directive amending Directive 2005/36/EC on the Recognition of Professional Qualifications and the Regulation on Administrative Cooperation through the Internal Market Information System (IMI), is reaching completion.

At this point, we would like to acknowledge the good work of the Parliamentary Committees in charge of amending the text, and notably the good work of the IMCO Committee and of Mrs Bernadette Vergnaud, MEP, responsible for the final Report of the European Parliament. Our organisations welcome the fact that the views of the stakeholders and the social partners have been significantly taken into account by the representatives of the European Citizens, especially regarding Common Training Frameworks, Continuing Professional Development, Partial Access and Alert mechanism.

ETUC, ETUCE, EPSU, EUROCADRES and CEPLIS consider that the opportunity given to the social partners and to the professional organisations to participate in the development of Common Training Frameworks is an important step forward: a step towards an ever growing involvement of the stakeholders in the drafting of legislation governing their training. The inclusion of Continuing Professional Development in the text by the European Parliament is another reason for our satisfaction and as such an important improvement of the current Directive.

As we are saluting the work done, we must also note that not all opportunities of modernisation of the current Directive have been explored, for instance, the ambitious project of Professional Cards.

ETUC, ETUCE, EPSU, EUROCADRES and CEPLIS wish to reaffirm their commitment to work in collaboration with the institutions of the European Union and national governments as soon as the new Directive is adopted towards an effective and realistic implementation of the text in question. Our common goal is the completion of an Internal Market where all workers,managers and liberal professionals can fully benefit from the freedom of movement and professional practice.

Brussels, 16 May, 2013