The 1993 directive, which seeks to facilitate the free movement of doctors and the mutual recognition of their diplomas, certificates and other evidence of formal qualifications, distinguishes, with respect to the formal evidence of training in specialised medicine, between two situations:

-    formal qualifications that are not subject to automatic unconditional recognition between Member States (to which the judgment does not apply); and
-    formal qualifications that allow a doctor to pursue in his Member State of origin a medical activity that corresponds to some extent, albeit not formally, to the medical specialisation he wishes to pursue in the host Member State.

With respect to the latter situation, the directive provides that the host Member State may require migrant doctors to undergo additional training. However, it requires the host Member State to take into account periods of specialised training completed by migrant doctors and attested by the award of a formal qualification, when those periods correspond to the training periods required in the host Member State for the specialised training in question.

The Commission submitted that this obligation had not been correctly transposed into Spanish law, since migrant doctors must take part in a national competition procedure for 'Médico Interno Residente' (Resident Medical Intern). The MIR, it maintained, is not a competition for the purposes of recruitment, but rather a State test for those wishing to undergo training in specialised medicine. According to the Commission, although the host Member State may require additional training after having examined evidence of formal qualifications, it may not systematically subject access to that training to success in the MIR.

The Spanish Government claimed that the competition establishes an objective procedure based on the principles of merit and ability, a procedure that enables the authorities to allocate the limited number of existing posts. Moreover, Spain stated that exempting the migrant doctors concerned from that examination could enable Spanish doctors to circumvent the MIR selection system by undergoing a very brief period of training in another Member State.

The Court stated that the objective of the 1993 directive is to facilitate the mobility of doctors who are Community nationals and have undergone specialised medical training, by establishing rules and common criteria leading to the widest possible mutual recognition of evidence of formal qualifications. The Court pointed out that, in the case where it is necessary to undergo additional training, the directive requires the host Member State to take into account the professional qualifications of the person concerned when determining what additional training is needed.

The Court thus considered that the completion of additional training may relate only to fields which, according to the domestic legislation of the host Member State, are not covered by the evidence of formal qualifications held by the person concerned. To require, in principle, the participation of all migrant doctors, without distinction, who have completed specialised training in other Member States in the MIR competition in which general medical practitioners with no specialised training have to take part is, therefore, according to the Court, contrary to the 1993 directive.

Accordingly, the Court held that Spain had not correctly transposed the 1993 directive.

However, the Court dismissed the Commission's application in so far as it related to the obligation, laid down by Spanish law, that a doctor must be affiliated to the national health scheme in order to be reimbursed for medical services. According to the Court, that question goes beyond the bounds of the directive, which does not affect the power of Member States to organise their national social security schemes.

Unofficial document for media use which is not binding on the Court of Justice. Available in English, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. For the full text of the judgment please see our website www.curia.eu.int  about 3 p.m. today. For further information please contact Cristina Sanz: Tel: (00 352) 4303 3367; Fax: (00 352) 4303 2668