Presentation of CPLOL

by Dietlinde Schrey-Dern, President of CPLOL 1999-2005

Edited 2003

Introduction

CPLOL was founded 15 years ago by 9 professional organisations representing speech and language therapists in different European countries. The delegates of these professional organisations of the European Community met in Paris on the suggestion of Jacques Roustit, President of FNO (Fédération Nationale des Orthophonistes), France, in order to discuss a new proposal to encourage collaboration at an European level. In a very short time the Standing Liaison Committee of Speech and Language Therapists, today known by its french initials CPLOL (Comité Permanent de Liaison des Orthophonistes/Logopèdes) was formed.

Members of CPLOL

The constitutional charter was signed the 6 march 1988 in Paris by representatives of the following countries: Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Spain and the United Kingdom. The representatives of the nine founder countries were quickly joined by others so that in March 1989 already 15 organisations representing the 12 member states of the European Community at that time, had become members of CPLOL. With the enlargement of the E.U. in January 1995 CPLOL welcomed the professional associations from Austria, Finland and Sweden who were observer members prior to this.

Currently all countries of the E.U. are represented in CPLOL. Beside the full members there are also professional associations as observer members: Cyprus, Estonia, Norway and Switzerland. At the moment many associations of the eastern European countries are interested to join CPLOL. Lithuania, Poland and the Czech Republic have already applied for membership; Malta and Slovenia have been informed of the conditions for membership by the E.C.

Aims and objectives

Having a look at the main objectives fixed in the Constitutional Charter of March 1988, one gets an idea about the mutual respect and the spirit of cooperation and European solidarity. The founder members of CPLOL were convinced that the creation of a European umbrella organisation of Speech and Language Therapists would facilitate to influence the development of the profession on the European level. The initiative of the E.U. to harmonize professional statutes and to promote the free movement of professionals in Europe has been welcomed, at the same time the representatives thought that it would be important to influence the drawing up of the General EU-directives regulating the free movement of professionals and the recognition of professional qualifications. In this context the evolution of training and professional practice in the member states is also very important as well as the promotion of collaboration of professionals in the European Community.

Freedom of movement, the co-ordination of conditions for practice, the equivalence of qualifications and the harmonisation of legislation, these objectives demand specific engagement by the CPLOL member organisations as well as the Executive Committee of CPLOL on the European level. CPLOL has to study regulations and decisions made by the European authorities affecting Speech and Language therapy and to provide expert advice in Speech and Language Therapy to any political, parliamentary or administrative authority.

The Organisation of scientific congresses promotes directly the exchange of scientific knowledge. The publication of a scientific and professional journal of CPLOL belongs to one of the first dreams of the founder members of CPLOL and has not yet been realized. The harmonisation of standards and quality of initial training and continuing education is one of the bases to describe the conditions for the recognition of professional qualifications. The objectives determine the fields of competence where CPLOL has to stress its activities: Research and documentation, scientific congresses, professional practice, education and prevention.

Core documents

In the beginning of CPLOL the very first step has been to establish CPLOL among the member associations and that meant to work out basic documents to have a common point of reference.

Since 1988 many core documents have been developed by the CPLOL-member organisations, respectively by their representatives.

Already in April 1989 the first version of the CPLOL-statutes was adopted by the G.A. Until today this first version has been changed 8 times. This reflects the ongoing discussion of the CPLOL-delegates and shows the interest to adapt the statutes to the needs of an organisation that has changed a lot from its beginnings.  In this context belongs also the drawing up of the internal regulations describing the different tasks of the delegates, the members of the E.C., the elections procedure and financial regulations.

Due to the engagement of Athena Frangouli, treasurer of CPLOL at that time, the Code of Ethics had been realized in a very short time: from 1992 to 1993; the code describes personal responsibility, professional conduct, responsibility towards clients, colleagues and the community, confidentiality and also ethical guidelines for research.

The first basic document, CPLOL has started to work on, has been the Professional Profile. In October 1990 the definition of a speech and language therapist and its role and function has been adopted at the G.A. in London. The G.A. of Cologne in 1994 added the description of the kind of disorders; the chapter on competences and attitudes of an SLT was adopted by the G.A. in Lisbonne in 1997. The change of the professional profile during these years is due to the fact that in the Commission Professional Practice and in the Commission Education surveys had been carried out upon the Speech and language Therapy and initial Training in the E.U. The results of these surveys worked out on the basis of questionnaires helped the delegates to define the kind of disorders and the description of the competences and attitudes of a SLT in practice.

The guidelines for Minimal standards of initial training, adopted in Naples 1998, have been worked out on the basis of the European wide survey on initial training and on the basis of the IALP guidelines that have been published in 1995.

The engagement for Prevention started in CPLOL in 1994 and is a symbol for a more public-orientated activity of the organisation. The first European day of Speech and Language Therapy in November 1996 has been a great succes. The Prevention report, published in 1999, represents a first survey upon the state of practice in the area of prevention in Europe. The guidelines for Prevention, started in 2000 and carried out on the basis of the WHO-definition, had been adopted in Helsinki in 2001.

Scientific congresses

Since 1992 five scientific congresses have been organised in different European countries: Athens (1992), Antwerp (1994); Lisbonne (1997); Paris (2000), Edinburgh (2003). Today the organisation of CPLOL congresses is quite professional. A scientific committee, 6 experts from different European countries, work out the call for Papers, make a selection of interventions on the basis of specific criteria and work out the program in cooperation with the E.C. of CPLOL. Specific congress rules are regulating the responsibility of CPLOL and the member association hosting the congress. This development is due to the fact that the scientific committee evaluates the carrying out of the congress with the aim to facilitate the organisation for the next host associations and to improve the quality of the program.

Functionning of CPLOL

With the enlargement of the E.U. in the following years, CPLOL will also increase its membership. We have to be prepared to the fact that there will be up to 25 countries represented in CPLOL. The functioning of CPLOL, i.e. the organisation of General Assemblies, commissions and working group meetings, will therefore have to meet this challenge through changes in order to enable us to further development built on our work and that of our predecessors. Therefore the financing of CPLOL has to change in the future. CPLOL needs to get regularly European funding for the organisation of the scientific congresses and for the realisation of European projects. The prevention projects already represent a first step in this direction.

Perspectives

Today the most important aspect of the engagement of CPLOL is to establish CPLOL as the professional umbrella organisation of speech and language therapists in the European Community. That means that the European Parliament and the Commission in Brussels recognize CPLOL as the acknowledged professional expert in all matters relating to our profession, and whose advice is sought and respected.

To reach this aim CPLOL has to continue with already ongoing activities and to further develop specific activities that could help to establish the organisation in the European community as a respected and valued consultation body.

Due to the fact that the E.U. will have a constitution in the near future that will influence the political, social conditions in every member state, the role of CPLOL will also change. Having a look at the draft for the General directive for recognition of professional qualifications in the E.U., the European authorities have expressed their intention to involve the professional bodies more directly in the recognition procedure than that has happened before. The draft of the committee on legal affairs and internal market of February 2003 says that „bodies representative of professional associations should be allowed to establish common platforms“ … „with the legal character of implementing provisions for the current directive“.

The central condition to be recognized as a professional platform by the E.U. is that CPLOL is officially recognized as Non-governmental organisation (NGO) by the E.U. The application of CPLOL has already been examined by the Secretariat General, NGOs Unit which had stated that CPLOL „could make a contribution to the Council of Europe's activities for the rehabilitation and integration of people with disabilities“. The recognition as NGO depends on the co-operation of CPLOL with the Council of Europe. Therefore CPLOL started to intensify the contacts with European authorities and organisations of health care professionals and disabled people like the European disability Forum. The EDF is the European umbrella organisation of disabled people. Since 2002 CPLOL has intensified the contact with EDF the way that every information of EDF which could be relevant for CPLOL-member associations is forwarded by the President and General Secretary to motivate the member associations to engage themselves in the EYPD 2003, so that the function of CPLOL as a tool for information has been extended, too. The Newsletter of the European Council of liberal profession, CEPLIS, is important for the actual discussion about the General directive and informations concerning health care. The actual activities of the members of the E.C. stress on the political perspective as described.

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