Public consultation

This public consultation process set out to obtain stakeholders' views on a wide range of issues connected with the healthcare workforce and preparing for the care of an ageing population. The results of the consultation will feed into the Commission's consideration of what the EU can do to support Member States in tackling these challenges.

The consultation closed on 10 April 2009.

The Commission received a total number of 200 responses to the consultation that were broken down in several categories.

Ensuring that health professionals can easily access job and training opportunities in another EU country can not only benefit these individuals, but also help to rectify imbalances between countries that have too many or too few professionals in a given field.

Mutual recognition of professional qualifications

Directive 2005/36/EC on recognition of professional qualifications set up a Europe-wide legal framework enabling countries to recognise each other's qualifications. Health professions (doctors, nurses, midwives, dentists, pharmacists, vets) enjoy automatic recognition – meaning that if you are a certified practitioner in your home country, you are automatically entitled to practice anywhere in the EU.

Directive 2013/55/EU, amended the professional qualifications directive simplifying the rules to make it easier for health and other regulated professionals to practise in other EU countries.

• Professional qualifications – more info

Mobility and migration of health professionals

Two EU research projects aim to help develop a more accurate picture of health workforce migration patterns both within the EU and between the EU and other countries:

• Health Professional Mobility and Health Systems (PROMeTHEUS)
• Mobility of Health Professionals (MoHPRof)

Mitigating the negative effects of migration on health systems

Health worker migration has increased worldwide over the past decades, especially from lower income countries with already fragile health systems. To address this challenge, the WHO Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel was adopted.

It aims to establish and promote voluntary principles and practices for the ethical international recruitment of health personnel and to facilitate the strengthening of health systems. Member States should discourage active recruitment of health personnel from developing countries facing critical shortages of health workers.