The European Parliament

The European Parliament

The inspiration for our national work lays in the political accomplishments from abroad.
In April 1993, we were invited in Strasbourg by Mister Paul Lannoye, Member of the European Parliament to participate in the workshops on non-conventional Medicine. We were confronted with the paradoxical situation in which a health practitioner, officially recognised in a country, could be brought before the courts for illegal practice of medicine in another Member State of the European Community.
Surely enough, new and supranational situations emerged, but in contradiction with the principles of the Treaty of Rome, in particular those concerning the free movement of persons and services. They gave a different dimension to our ideas and our efforts to try to change the current laws.

While, in certain countries, osteopathy is actually restricted to the medical profession, other countries grant legal recognition to osteopaths. In the United Kingdom for example, the legal vacuum in the field of osteopathy was filled on 1 July 1993 by the "Osteopaths Act".

On 25 April 1994, a draft on the regulation of non-conventional medicine was proposed by Paul Lannoye to the Public Health, Environment and Consumer Protection Committee. It was adopted by 27 votes for, 4 against and 1 abstention.

This draft was to be submitted to the Plenary Session of the Parliament in Strasbourg on 6 May 1994. Unfortunately, Professor Schwartzenberg went all the way to have the vote postponed under Article 52 of the European Constitution. This article stipulates that the draft resolution must be withdrawn from the vote if 52 signatures of MEPs from three different parties requesting further information are collected. The draft must then be re-examined in a working session of the Parliament.
After the European Elections in June 1994, Paul Lannoye was re-elected as a Member of the European Parliament, and worked on a new draft resolution on complementary medicine. He was appointed official rapporteur to the European Parliament and submitted his draft which was then known as the "Rapport sur le Statut des Médecines non conventionnelles" (Report on the Status of Non-conventional Medicine).
On 7 February 1997, the Commission des Affaires Juridiques et des Droits les Citoyens (Legal Affairs and Citizens' Rights Committee) unanimously voted for the report.

On 27 February 1997, the Commission de la Santé Publique, de l'Environnement et de la Protection des Consommateurs (Public Health, Environment and Consumer Protection) voted by 21 for, 4 against and 2 abstentions in favour of the same report. On 29 May 1997, the European Parliament voted in plenary session in Brussels in favour of the resolution on the statute of non-conventional medicine by 152 votes for, 125 against and 28 abstentions.

The European Parliament thus asked the Commission to embark on the process of recognising non-conventional medicine.

The European Commission decides to launch the project COST B4 (European Cooperation in the field of Science and Technology) to gather scientific studies on non-conventional medicine. The final report was presented from 4 to 6 June 1998 at a large conference in Pavia (Italy), in the presence of Public Health Cabinets from all Member States. The SBO-BVO took part officially. The Académie Belge d’Ostéopathie and the European Register of Osteopaths addressed the conference.

On 17 June 1998, the European Parliament in plenary session adopted an amendment to the common position on the fifth Framework Programme of Research concerning the evaluation of the efficacy of non-conventional therapies. The amendment adopted includes all of Article 2 of the resolution on the statute of non-conventional medicine adopted by the European Parliament on 29 May 1997 (A4-0075/97), i.e.: "The evaluation of efficacy, safety and scope of non-conventional therapies, taking into account their preventive role and possibilities for an individual and holistic approach to health". The European Commission now has to express its opinion on the matter.
The European Register of Osteopaths, as called until April 1998, convened a meeting of associations and colleges of osteopathy on 4 December 1998. Together, these representatives (from ten European countries) examined the amendments made to the 5th Framework Programme on non-conventional medicine. They examined the conclusions of the final report of COST B4 and evaluated in general all the recent developments in the legalisation of osteopathy as an independent health profession with a high level of responsibility.

The Council of Europe

The Social Matters Committee of Public Health and Family adopted a resolution on 4 November 1999 during the plenary session of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, concerning the statute of non-conventional medicines. This decision, taken by more than 40 members of the Council of Europe, expresses the wish of European governments to legalise osteopathy.

The Law Proposal of the SBO-BVO

Our law proposal, aiming at the recognition of the art of osteopathy and the creation of an official and independent status for professionals, was presented to the Full Members of the Public Health Committee on 24 September 1996 in debating chamber nr. 1 of the Chamber of Representatives.

In April 1999 the Draft Bill of the Minister of Public Health Marcel Colla was adopted by the Senate. The Bill gathered the different professions in order to grant them a status: osteopathy, homeopathy, chiropractic and acupuncture.

In 2000, Minister Magda Aelvoet decided to make a first step towards the recognition of certain professional organisations of homeopathy, acupuncture, osteopathy, chiropractic so that the Authorities would finally have good bases of discussion for negotiations.

Jef Taverniers succeeded to Magda Alvoet and recognised the Professional Unions, among which the SBO-BVO in the Royal Decree of 10 February 2003