Mr President, I should like to thank the rapporteur, fellow MEPs and of course the Commissioner and his staff, because producing this report was a difficult business. The intention was to simplify the 15 existing directives, which will bring more legal certainty, but, above all, more dynamism and labour mobility. I think that that is necessary in order to optimise the internal market, which is, after all, one of the European Union's cornerstones. This is still lacking, because there are still virtual borders hindering mobility. I am therefore pleased with this directive, which could possibly contribute to more labour mobility. I would also like to thank Mr Zappalá for the constructive manner in which he has tried eventually to put the complex proposals that were before us into what is, hopefully, a workable and improved shape by means of compromise amendments. However, I, along with the , also have a few points of criticism. There is, for example, the time criterion. In our view, not too much consideration should be given to the duration of training, which is of less importance than its quality. We should therefore arrive at a points system that reflects the quality of training, because I can imagine that training courses leading up to a certain qualification last four years in some countries, and five or six years in others, while the quality is the same. However, according to the proposal regarding the time criterion, different levels should be awarded. I am not in favour of that and I hope that Amendment No 12, which I tabled and which is, admittedly, included in the preamble, will eventually be included in the legislative text possibly following consultation with the rapporteur. I am also of the opinion that the rights and duties for professions with a certain liability and responsibility in public health should be tightened up. I am mainly referring to the medical and socio-medical professions. I think that those professions should be subject to mandatory registration. I am, above all, also thinking of the requirements that are prescribed in the Member State to which people move in order to work, for example compulsory liability insurance. I hope that we will find a solution for this. I should now like to turn to an aspect that I regard as important, namely access to the labour market. The Commission proposal states that people need to have worked for two out of the past ten years. In the Committee on Legal Affairs and the Internal Market, this has been changed to two years over the past five years. I think this discriminates against a number of groups, including women who start a family, have children and then return to work. They would then have to work in a Member State for two years before they can access Europe. I would like to urge this House to keep to the Commission proposal of two years out of the past ten. I will also be asking for a roll-call vote on this. While I welcome the fact that advisory platforms will be set up, I would ask you not to extend these to national platforms, for that would make the whole thing too complex, and any attempts at arriving at a recommendation would then be chaotic. I think that we should persevere with the Commission proposal to organise it at European level. Finally, I hope that this directive will attract a large majority, so that we can make the internal market more efficient than it already is.

Political group: ELDR