The European Union of Medical Specialists and speciality training.

The Union Europe enne des Me decins SpeÂcialistes (UEMS) Section Anaesthesiology Reanimation and Intensive Care is privileged to be able to publish the training guidelines in this issue of the Journal. This publication, by reaching a wide audience, will promote the aims of this UEMS Section by harmonizing training programmes and achieving minimum standards of training and expertize among the Member European Union States. This harmonization will allow the free movement of doctors and specialists, which is the prime aim of the European Union. The Treaty of Rome, signed by the six Member States in 1957, promoted the free movement of Nationals of these countries, but this did not guarantee migrating doctors the right to exercise their medical profession in other Member States. In order to rectify this omission Medical Directives were issued in 1975 and 1986, which, together with later amendments, resulted in the Medical Directive 93/16/EC. The major purpose of the Directives was to facilitate free movement of doctors and specialists within the European Union. The Directive provided a legal aspect for the mutual recognition of medical quali®cation at basic and postgraduate level. The ®nal version of the long awaited update of the Directive 93/16/EC has recently been published and is available (77 pages) on the newspage of the UEMS website [1]. In the Directive it states that: Member States are obliged to harmonize their medical training systems in order to comply with the minimum requirements laid down. However, Member States can place their respective quali®cations at higher level. Nevertheless, a European Union country cannot refuse recognition of a doctor who is a National of that country and holds a medical quali®cation awarded on completion of training at both basic and postgraduate level. In 1958, one year after the Treaty of Rome, medical specialists from the then six member countries of the European Economic Community (EEC) formed the UEMS European Union of Medical Specialists. The UEMS created Specialist Sections in 1962, so that general criteria and comparable levels of training in member countries could be established. These Sections, working together with the Standing Committee of European Doctors, initiated the work that introduced the concepts of coordination and then harmonizing the specialist training and also criteria for the recognition of medical specialists. Their proposals and surveys were used in the ®rst European Directive in 1975 about the free movement of doctors within the European Community. To further co-ordinate European professional medical organizations, universities and national governments, the European Commission established the Advisory Committee on Medical Training (ACMT). This committee is an of®cial European Union body that advises the European Commission and through them the Council of Ministers. The Specialist Sections inform the ACMT via the UEMS Executive Committee and the Standing Committee of European Doctors. The UEMS, on the strength of the Directive, produced a Charter on Training of Medical Specialists in 1993. Other charters were compiled to consolidate training objectives and maintain quality of education. These are: