In the scope of the celebrations of the European Day of Liberal Professions, the Ordem dos Psicólogos Portugueses (OPP) accepted the invitation from the European Economic and Social Committee - Group III, on the behalf of its Portuguese representative Carlos Pereira Martins, to be in Brussels today.

Representatives of the liberal professions throughout Europe were present, and from Portugal, the President of the Order of Psychologists, the President of the Order of Pharmacists and the Order of Medical Dentists were present. The presence of the latter was a President of the National Council of Professional Orders.

At this meeting, the topics were the future of the liberal professions in the domestic market, the European Directive for the Recognition of Professional Qualifications, the transparency, independence and qualification, as common values to the liberal professions, the monitoring in the implementation of the common values, the Liberal Profession Orders, Colleges and Associations as players in the single market and the professional qualification of this Directive which also includes the European mobility of professionals.. It should be noted that, during the meeting, there was an important approximation of the concept of liberal professions to the concept of small and medium-sized companies.

From the statements made by Henri Malosse, president of Group I, in which "the Orders are not barriers to competition", Telmo Baptista believes that “in difficult situations, the States tend to put the responsibilities on the Order regarding the difficulties of entering the job market. In this situation, the States think about deregulating the professions saying that this will help a quicker entry into the job market. Sometimes, they consider the possibility of placing agreements, on a European level, to one side, jepordising the qualification and competence of the professionals with negative reflections on the quality of the services provided to the consumer. For psychologists, an example would be to stop the compulsory nature of having Professional Internships or the compliance with other requirements on which there is current European standardisation.”