The European Commission decided today to launch an infringement procedure against Portugal for failing to adopt European Union (EU) rules regarding the recognition of professional qualifications for nurses, dentists, and pharmacists.
The EU executive sent a letter of formal notice to Portugal and seven other Member States for failing to transpose Directive (EU) 2024/782, which concerns the recognition of professional qualifications in the healthcare sector, into national law.
The deadline for transposition ended on March 4.
The directive in question updates the minimum training requirements for general care nurses, dental practitioners, and pharmacists to reflect generally recognized scientific and technical progress.
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According to a press release, these updates introduce or expand training requirements across the EU in areas such as e-health, digital technologies, immunology, regenerative medicine, dentistry, biopharmaceuticals, biotechnology, genetics, and pharmacogenomics.
To date, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Croatia, Cyprus, Malta, Austria, and Portugal have not communicated to the Commission the measures fully transposing the new rules into national law.
The concerned Member States now have a period of two months to respond.
