Keywords
Summary

Keywords

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1. Freedom of movement for persons - Freedom of establishment - Freedom to provide services - Practitioners of dentistry - Appointment as a dental practitioner of a social security scheme - National provision requiring a national of another Member State authorized to practice as a dentist but only having a qualification from a non-member State to complete a preparatory training period - Whether permissible - Recognition of equivalence of diploma by another Member State - No effect

(Council Directives 78/686/EEC, Arts 3 and 20, and 78/687/EEC, Art. 1(4) )

2. Freedom of movement for persons - Freedom of establishment - Freedom to provide services - Practitioners of dentistry - Appointment as a dental practitioner of a social security scheme - National provision requiring a national of another Member State only having a qualification from a non-member State, but having practised the profession in several Member States, to complete a preparatory training period - Obligation of the competent authorities to examine whether the professional experience required under national law corresponds to that already acquired by the person concerned

(EEC Treaty, Art. 52)

Summary

1. Article 20 of Directive 78/686/EEC concerning the mutual recognition of diplomas, certificates and other evidence of formal qualifications of practitioners of dentistry, including measures to facilitate the effective exercise of the right of establishment and freedom to provide services, does not prohibit a Member State from requiring a national of another Member State who has none of the qualifications listed in Article 3 of the directive to complete a preparatory training period in order to be eligible for appointment as a dental practitioner of a social security scheme even though he is authorized to practise in the territory of the first State.

Similarly, the said Article 20 does not exempt from the preparatory training period a national of a Member State who holds a qualification awarded by a non-member State, where that qualification has been recognized by another Member State as equivalent to one listed in Article 3 of the directive.

If, in order to be exempt from the preparatory training period, it were sufficient to be a national of a Member State and to have pursued the profession in a Community State for a certain period without having to satisfy any additional condition as regards training, Directive 78/686 would not have distinguished between Community nationals applying for appointment before the expiry of the eight-year period following notification of the directive and those who apply for appointment subsequently, that is to say once the guarantees resulting from the requirements laid down in Directive 78/687 as regards theoretical and practical training had been brought into effect. Furthermore, it follows from Article 1(4) of Directive 78/687 that recognition by a Member State of qualifications awarded by non-member States, even if they have been recognized as equivalent in one or more Member States, does not bind the other Member States.

2. It is not permissible under Article 52 of the EEC Treaty for the competent authorities of a Member State to refuse appointment as a dental practitioner of a social security scheme to a national of another Member State who has none of the qualifications mentioned in Article 3 of Directive 78/686, but who has been authorized to practise, and has been practising, his profession both in the first and in another Member State, on the ground that he has not completed the preparatory training period required by the legislation of the first State, without examining whether and, if so, to what extent, the experience already established by the person concerned, including that acquired as an appointed dental practitioner of a social security scheme in another Member State, corresponds to that required by that provision.