Cap. 464 Art. 42Request for registration.

(1) Whenever the relevant Council decides on an application for entry in any of the registers kept by the relevant

Council, the Council may whilst guaranteeing the confidentiality of the information contained therein demand the documents and certificates listed under the Seventh Schedule.

(i) The documents mentioned under paragraphs (d), (e)

and (f) of the Seventh Schedule shall not be more than three months old by the date on which they are submitted.

(ii) In case of doubt, the relevant Council may require from the competent authorities of a Member State confirmation of the authenticity of the attestations and evidence of formal qualifications awarded in that other Member State, as well as, where applicable, confirmation of the fact that the beneficiary fulfils the minimum training conditions set out under national law.

(iii) Nonetheless in cases of doubt, where the evidence of formal qualifications has been issued by a competent authority in a Member State and includes training received in whole or in part in an establishment legally established in the territory of another Member State, the relevant Council shall be entitled to verify with the competent body in the Member State of origin of the award:

(a) whether the training course at the establishment which gave the training has been formally certified by the educational establishment based in the Member State of origin of the award;

(b) whether the evidence of formal qualifications issued is the same as that which would have been awarded if the course had been followed entirely in the Member State of origin of the award;

(c) whether the evidence of formal qualifications confers the same professional rights in the territory of the Member State of origin of the award;

(d) whether the applicant is suspended or prohibited from the pursuit of the profession as a result of serious professional misconduct or conviction of criminal offences relating to the pursuit of any of his professional activities;

(e) the relevant Council shall ensure that nationals of Member States can use appropriate equivalent wording when swearing a solemn oath or making a sworn statement in order to gain access to the regulated profession;

(f) the relevant Council shall acknowledge receipt of the application within one month of receipt and inform the applicant of any missing document;

(g) the procedure for examining an application to practise a regulated profession must be completed as quickly as possible and lead to a duly substantiated decision by the relevant Council in any case within three months after the date on which the applicant’s complete file was submitted. However, this deadline may be extended by one month in cases falling under Chapters I and II of the Professional Qualifications Directive;

(h) the decision, or failure to reach a decision within the deadline, shall be subject to appeal under Article 49; and

(i) the relevant Council shall ensure that applicants benefiting from the recognition of professional qualifications shall have a knowledge of languages necessary for practising the profession in Malta. The relevant Council shall ensure that any controls carried out to ensure compliance with this requirement shall be limited to the knowledge of one official language of Malta, or one administrative language of Malta provided it is also an official language of the European Union, and that controls shall be carried out only if the profession to be practised has patient safety implications or in cases where there is a serious and concrete doubt about the sufficiency of the professional’s language knowledge in respect of the professional activities which that professional intends to pursue. Any language controls shall be proportionate to the activity to be pursued and subject to appeal in terms of article 49: Provided that controls may be carried out only after the issuance of a European Professional Card in accordance with article 42F or after the recognition of a professional qualification, as the case may be.

(2) In pursuance of the foregoing provisions of this article, the relevant Council shall, in the case of refusal of registration, give a reasoned decision and inform the applicant of his right of appeal in terms of article 49.

(3) The provisions of article 49 concerning an appeal from a decision of any of the Councils in respect registration of a health care professional shall mutatis mutandis apply.

(4) (a) Without prejudice to any provision of this Act, a national of Member State wishing to provide services in Malta, hereinafter referred to as "service provider", shall not be restricted, for any reason relating to professional qualifications, from providing such services if he:

(i) is legally established in a Member State hereinafter referred to as the "Member State of establishment" for the purpose of pursuing the same profession there;

(ii) moves to Malta to pursue his profession, on a temporary and occasional basis;

(iii) has pursued that profession in one or several Member States for at least one year during the ten years preceding the provision of services when the profession is not regulated in the Member State of establishment unless either the profession or the education and training leading to the profession is regulated.

(b) The temporary and occasional nature of the provision of services shall be assessed case by case by the relevant Council, in particular in relation to its duration, its frequency, its regularity and its continuity.

(c) Where a service provider moves, he shall be subject to the same professional rules of a professional, statutory or administrative nature which are directly linked to professional qualifications, such as the definition of the profession, the use of titles and serious professional malpractice which is directly and specifically linked to consumer protection and safety, as well as disciplinary provisions which are applicable in Malta to professionals who pursue the same profession.

(5) (a) A service provider established in another Member State shall be exempted from the requirements which are placed on registered professionals relating to:

(i) registration with the relevant Council provided that the service provider has been automatically temporarily registered with such Council and provided that such registration does not delay or complicate in any way the provision of services and does not entail any additional costs for the service provider. A copy of the declaration and, where applicable, of the renewal referred to in sub-article (6), accompanied by a copy of the documents referred to in sub-article (7) sent by the competent authority in the Member State of Establishment shall constitute automatic temporary registration or pro forma membership for this purpose;

(ii) registration with a public social security body for the purpose of settling accounts with an insurer relating to activities pursued for the benefit of insured persons. The service provider shall inform in advance or, in an urgent case, afterwards the public social security body of the services which he has provided.

(6) (a) Where the service provider first moves to Malta from if any Member State in order to provide services, he shall inform the relevant Council in a written declaration to be made in advance including the details of any insurance cover or other means of personal or collective protection with regard to professional liability. Such declaration shall be renewed once a year if the service provider intends to provide temporary or occasional services in Malta during that year. The service provider may supply the declaration by any means. Submission of the required declaration by the service provider shall entitle that service provider to have access to the service activity or to exercise that activity in the entire territory of Malta.

(b) In the case of first time provision of services in Malta or if there is a material change in the situation substantiated by the documents, the declaration shall be accompanied by the following documents:

(i) proof of the nationality of the service provider;

(ii) an attestation certifying that the holder is legally established in a Member State for the purpose of pursuing the activities concerned and that he is not prohibited from practising, even temporarily, at the moment of delivering the attestation;

(iii) evidence of professional qualifications;

(iv) for cases referred to in sub-article (4)(a)(iii), any means of proof that the service provider has pursued the activity concerned for at least one year during the previous ten years;

(v) where the relevant Council so requires for its own nationals, an attestation confirming the absence of temporary or final suspensions from exercising the profession or of criminal convictions;

(vi) for professions that have patient safety implications, a declaration about the applicant’s knowledge of the language necessary for practising the profession in Malta.

(c) The service shall be provided under the professional title in accordance with the provisions of this Act.

(d) In the case of regulated professions which do not benefit from an automatic recognition of qualifications, the relevant Council may verify the professional qualifications of the service provider prior to the first provision of services. Such prior verification may be possible only where the purpose of the said verification is to avoid serious damage to the health or safety of the service recipient due to a lack of professional qualification of the service provider and where this does not go beyond what is necessary for that purpose.

(e) No later than one month after receipt of the declaration and accompanying documents, the relevant Council shall inform the service provider of its decision:

(i) not to check his professional qualifications;

(ii) having checked his professional qualifications to require him either to take an aptitude test or to allow him to provide the services. Where there is a difficulty which would result in delay in taking a decision, the relevant Council shall notify the service provider of the reason for the delay within the same deadline. The difficulty shall be solved within one month of that notification and the decision finalised within two months of resolution of the difficulty.

(f) Where there is a substantial difference between the professional qualifications of the service provider and the training required, to the extent that that difference is such as to be harmful to public health or safety, and that it cannot be compensated by the service provider’s professional experience or by knowledge, skills and competences acquired through lifelong learning formally validated to that end by a relevant body, the relevant Council shall give that service provider the opportunity to show, by means of an aptitude test, that he has acquired the knowledge, skills or competence that were lacking. The relevant Council shall take a decision on that basis on whether to allow the provision of services. In any case, it must be possible to provide the service within one month of the decision taken in accordance with the previous paragraph.

(g) In the absence of a reaction of the relevant Council within the deadlines set in the previous paragraphs, the service may be provided.

(7) (a) The relevant Council may ask the competent authorities of the Member State of establishment, in the event of justified doubts,, for each provision of services, to provide any information relevant to the legality of the service provider’s establishment and his good conduct, as well as the absence of any disciplinary or criminal sanctions of a professional nature. In the event that the relevant Council decides to check th e service provider ’s profession al qualifications, it may ask the competent authorities of the Member State of establishment for information about the service provider’s training courses to the extent necessary to assess substantial differences likely to be harmful to public health or safety.

(b) Any information requested by the relevant Council shall be in accordance with the provisions of Article 56 of the Professional Qualifications Directive.

(c) It shall be the duty of the relevant Council to ensure that the exchange of all information necessary for complaints by a recipient of a service against a service provider is correctly pursued. Recipients shall be informed of the outcome of the complaint.

(8) (a) Upon registration by the relevant Council the applicant shall have the right to practice the same profession as that for which he is qualified in the Member State of origin and to pursue that same profession under the same conditions as Maltese nationals.

(b) For the purposes of this Act, the profession which the applicant wishes to pursue in Malta is the same as that for which he is qualified in the country of origin only if the activities covered are comparable.

(c) Partial access to a profession shall be granted under the conditions laid down in article 42H.