The Organization

CPLOL is the Standing Liaison Committee of Speech and Language Therapists / Logopedists in the European Union.

The acronyme 'CPLOL' refers to the French name: Comité Permanent de Liaison des Orthophonistes / Logopedes de l'Union Européenne.

Members of CPLOL are the national professional organizations of SLTs / logopedists meeting the criteria for membership set by the General Assembly. Organizations from European countries outside the EU can be admitted as observer members.
As of 2007 CPLOL is composed of 31 professional organizations of speech and language therapists / logopedists in 28 countries.
The member organizations represent more than 60,000 professionals.

The official languages within CPLOL are English and French.

The official postal address is: CPLOL, 145 Bd Magenta, F-75010 Paris.

The email address is: info@cplol.eu

Objectives of CPLOL

Internal organization

History of CPLOL

Download an introduction leaflet about CPLOL here.

The objectives of CPLOL are -

to represent the member professional organisations to the European and international political, parliamentary and administrative authorities
to promote, within member countries of the EU:

freedom of movement and the right of members of the profession to practise in the countries of the EU

the co-ordination of conditions for the practice of speech and language therapy-logopedics

the equivalence of qualifications

the harmonisation of legislation relating to the profession

the exchange of scientific knowledge and research in the fields of speech and language therapy-logopedics

the harmonisation of standards and quality of initial training and continuing education

to study regulations and decisions made by European authorities affecting speech and language therapy - logopedics, and to submit projects and proposals to these authorities

to promote meetings with EU liaison committees representing other professions, which have common interests with speech and language therapists - logopedists

to provide assistance to member associations if the proposals made are of common interest

to organise European scientific congresses for speech and language therapists – logopedists

to publish any scientific and professional materials consistent with the CPLOL mission and the interests of the profession

to have contacts with professional and scientific organisations of speech and language therapists world-wide

to study and publish any document relating to European Speech and Language Therapy

to provide expert advice in Speech and Language Therapy / Logopedics to any political, parliamentary or administrative authority or any recognised association which would request it

to facilitate the development of the speech and language therapy profession by training, negotiation and taking new organisations into membership.

Internal organization

The General Assembly is the governing, decision-making and planning body of CPLOL. It consists of two delegates per country, these delegates to be speech and language therapists - logopedists, representing the organisation(s) of speech and language therapists - logopedists in each of the member countries.

The General Assembly meets every two years. Extraordinary General Assemblies may be convened in between the ordinary meetings.

The Executive Committee is the body responsible for carrying out the decisions of the
General Assembly and for managing CPLOL between meetings of the General Assembly on the basis of agreed policies.
Members of the Executive Committee are elected by the General Assembly - for a period of two years.

The Committee is made up of the President, the General Secretary, the Treasurer, and four Vice-Presidents. These seven members must represent at least six different countries.

The major tasks and projects are undertaken within the two standing commissions: The Professional Practice Commission and the Education Commission. Each country has one delegate in each commission.

For more information on the work of the two commissions, see Professional Practice and Education .

Beside the commissions, there are two standing committees within CPLOL: The Scientific Committee and the Recognition Committee.

The primary responsibility of the Scientific Committee is the content of the triennial scientific congresses.

For the time being (2006) the main business of the Recognition Committee is the preparations for establishing CPLOL as a common platform for speech and language therapy / logopaedics in the EU, according to the Directive on the recognition of professional qualifications (OJ L255 of 30.9.2005).

Much of the work of the commissions is carried out in Working Groups. Groups are set up according to the topics being dealt with at the time.
For a graphic representation of the structure of CPLOL, click on the diagram

The history of CPLOL

On 6 March 1988 in Paris, at the instigation of the Federation Nationale des Orthophonistes (France), the organisations or associations representing the nine countries of the European Community signed the constitutional charter which set up the Standing Liaison Committee of EU Speech and Language Therapists-Logopedists (CPLOL); the founding President was Jacques Roustit.

In 1989, 15 organisations representing the 12 countries of the Community joined as members of CPLOL.

In April 1992 the first CPLOL scientific congress was held in Athens; the theme was "Current trends in the Science of Speech and Language Pathology in Europe".

In 1993 Norway was admitted as observer member of CPLOL.

In September 1994, Belgium organised the Second European Congress in Antwerp.

In 1995 Austria, Finland and Sweden were admitted as CPLOL members following their joining the European Union.

In 1997, the Third CPLOL Scientific Congress was held in Lisbon with the theme: "Prevention - Assessment and measuring efficacy".

In May 1998, at the General Assembly in Naples, Cyprus and Estonia, which are both seeking to join the European Union, were admitted as observer members of CPLOL.

In 2000 the Fourth CPLOL Scientific Congress was held in Paris with the theme "Language: Quality and efficacy in speech and language therapy".

In September 2003 the Fifth Scientific Congress was held in Edinburgh, with the theme "Evidence-based Practice: A challenge for Speech and Language Therapists".

In October 2003, in connection with the eighth ordinary General Assembly in Malmö, Sweden, the Czech Republic was admitted as the fifth observer member. Also, the 15th anniversary of CPLOL was celebrated.

In 2004 the European Union welcomed 10 new member countries, among them Estonia, Cyprus and the Czech Republic. As the speech and language therapy/logopedics associations in these three countries were already observer members of CPLOL, they became full members as of May 2004. This event was marked by Estonia hosting the May meeting and Cyprus the October meeting of that year.

In May 2005 the Slovenian Association of Logopedists was admitted as a full member of CPLOL.

And the following year, in May 2006, another 'new' EU member country, Latvia, became a member of CPLOL, when the Speech Therapists' Association of Latvia was admitted. At the same General Assembly, the Croatian Logopedics Association was admitted as an observer member of CPLOL.

In September 2006 the Sixth CPLOL Congress was held in Berlin, hosted by the Deutscher Bundesverband für Logopädie. The theme of the congress was "A multilingual and multicultural Europe. A challenge for speech and language therapists" - a theme of the greatest interest at present.

As of January 2007, Norway became a full member of CPLOL. And at the General Assembly in Riga, Latvia in May 2007, the Speech Therapists' associations of Bulgaria, Iceland, Malta, Poland, and Slovakia were admitted as members of CPLOL.